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THE 



CONGREGATIONAL CATECHISM, 



CONTAINING 



A GENERAL SURVEY 



ORGANIZATION, GOVERNMENT, 



DISCIPLINE OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 



NEW HAVEN: 

PUBLISHED BY A. H. MALTBY= 

1844. 







ERED, 

Lct of Congress, in the year 1843, by 
A. H. MALTBY, 

In the Clerk's Office of tli'e District Court of Connecticut. 




Printed by 

HITCHCOCK AND STAFFORD, 

New Haven, Conn. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, ... .... 5 

Chap. I. General Principles of Church Polity, 7 
Chap. II. Constitution of the Primitive churches, 17 
Chap. III. Officers of the Primitive churches, 33 

Chap. IV. Changes in the Organization and Gov- 
ernment of the churches after the 
Apostohc Age, . . . 51 

Chap. V. Constitution of the Congregational 

churches, .... 79 

Chap. VI. Congregationalism preferable to every 

other ecclesiastical system, . 93 
Chap. VII. Constitution of the Protestant Episco- 
pal church, . . . .107 

Chap. VIII. Constitution of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, .... 125 

Chap. IX. Constitution of the Presbyterian 

church. . . . . 133 



PREFACE. 



The Congregational Catechism exhibits in a con- 
densed form the Constitution of the first Christian 
Chm'ches : the principal modifications of ecclesiastical 
govemment in succeeding ages ; the Constitution of the 
Congregational churches and its superiority to other ec- 
clesiastical systems; together vrdh an outhne of the 
general fi^me and regulations of the other principal 
forms of chm'ch order and government. The most im- 
portant principle advanced in the work, is, that the di- 
vine Head of the church estabHshed no complete sys- 
tem of order and rule according to which His church 
must be organized and governed, to the exclusion of 
every other : but yet that the Congregational system 
corresponds most closely with the primitive plan, and 
answers best the ends of confederation m Christian 
churches. 

1* 



b PREFACE. 

The work is designed for the use of ministers of the 
Gospel, theological students, and intelligent readers gen- 
erally ; and it is hoped it may prove to be a convenient 
Text-book for the instruction of classes by pastors and 
teachers : and be received with favor wherever the re- 
ligious institutions of the pilgrim fathers of New Eng- 
land are held in esteem. 

In prosecuting his task, the author has been assisted 
by the Rev. Dr. Murdock, of New Haven, to whom he 
is indebted for those parts, especially, which relate to the 
Jewish Synagogue, and the constitution of the church 
in the ages immediately succeeding the Apostles. He 
has also to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Dissen- 
ter's Catechism, a work in use among the EngUsh In- 
dependents, for aid in preparing the chapter on the Pro- 
testant Episcopal church. 

EDWARD R. TYLER. 
New Haven, Dec. 12, 1843. 



THE 

CONGREGATIONAL CATECHISM, 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH POLITY. 

Question 1. What is meant by Ecclesias- 
tical Polity 1 

Answer. The principles and rules by which 
churches are reo;ulated and o^overned. 

Q. 2. What is a church ? 

A. A company of professed believers in 
Christ, associated together for the public wor- 
ship of God, for the observance of Christian 
ordinances, and for mutual aid and encourage- 
ment in all Christian duties. 

Q. 3. Whence must be derived all imperative 
rules for the reo^ulation and orovernment of 
churches ? 

A. From the sacred Scriptures. It is ad- 



b GEXERAL PRINCIPLES OF 

mitted by all Protestants that the Bible is the 
only rule of faith and practice. 

Q. 4. Do the Scriptures prescribe any com- 
plete system of church polity, obligatory upon 
Christians in all ages and comitries ? 

A. They do not. They merely inculcate 
certain general principles, and enjoin certain 
ordinances, which all Christians should observe. 

Q. 5. What are some of these general prin- 
ciples ? 

A. That ail Christians are brethren in Christ, 
on a footing. of perfect equality in the church, 
and should be actuated by the purest love and 
the most fraternal feelings. ]\latt. xxiii. 8-12. 
Mark x. 41-45. John xiii. 34, 35. John xv. 
12. Rom. xii. 3-10, 16. James iii. 1. 1 Pet. 
i. 22, and iii. 8, 9. That the ends of their 
confederation in churches should be their mu- 
tual edification and advancement in holiness, 
and the diiiusion of religious knowledge and 
piety around them. I\latt. v. 13-16. 1 Cor. 
viii. 9-13. Eph. iv. 11-16. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
James v. 16-20. And that all their proceedings 
should harmonize with the spirit of their reli- 
gion, " all things be done decently and in or- 
der," and for the furtherance of the ends of 
their confederation. 1 Cor. xiii. 33, 40. 



CHURCH POLITY. 9 

Q. 6. What do you infer from the omission 
of the Apostles to record a system of express 
rules of church order, and exact descriptions 
of their own ecclesiastical usages ? 

A. That such points as are omitted in the 
inspired record, are not to be held essential to 
the right organization and ordering of a church; 
and that they are designedly left open for con- 
sideration and determination by human dis- 
cretion in each age and country. See Whateley's 
Kingdom of Christ, Essay II, Sections 12 
and 16. 

Q. 7. What authority has the mere example 
or practice of the Apostolic age in respect to 
the organization and government of churches ? 

A. It has not the authority of a law, obliga- 
tory upon all succeeding ages ; but it is an 
exemplification of Apostolic wisdom and pru- 
dence, in adopting suitable rules and regula- 
tions for the infant churches, in that age and 
state of the world. 

Q. 8. What belongs to a church, from the 
essential nature of a community ? 

A. It belongs to the very essence of a com- 
munity that it should have, first, officers of 
some kind ; secondly, rules enforced by pen- 
alties ; and, thirdly, a power of receiving and 



10 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF 

excluding members. See Whateley's Kingdom 
of Christ, Essay II, Section 2. 

Q. 9. What is manifestly excluded from a 
church, by the nature of Christianity, though 
not, perhaps, by express precept ? 

A. 1. The very nature of Christianity, as it 
aims to found a spiritual and not a temporal 
kingdom, excludes all temporal sanctions, and 
admits only those that are spiritual, for the 
support and enforcemjcnt of ecclesiastical laws. 

A. 2. As the Christian religion recognizes 
only one sacrifice for sin, that made by Jesus 
Christ upon the cross, it forever excludes from 
the Christian church, all real sacrifices, all 
real altars, and a liteidl priesthood. 

A. 3. As Christianity is altogether a spiritual 
religion, announcing the coming of the prom- 
ised Messiah, and offering grace and salvation 
to all who repent of their sins and believe and 
obey his Gospel, it of course annuls all the 
types and shadows of the Old Testament dis- 
pensation, dispels all mysterious rites, which 
shroud the way of salvation in obscurity, and 
requires a simple, direct worship, with as few 
ceremonies as will comport with decency and 
the efficacy of religious ordinances, John iv. 
21-24. 1 Johnii. 8. 



CHURCH POLITY. 11 

A. 4. As it places all Christians, as such, 
on a fooling of perfect equality with each 
other, it necessarily prohibits all dominion and 
lordship in the church, all subjection or subor- 
dination of one portion of the household of 
faith to the control of another, and all distinc- 
tions between clerg^^men and laymen, which 
would be incompatible with the most fraternal 
and affectionate feelings and intercourse. — 
Matt. XX. 27. Whateley, Essay II, Sec. 16. 

Q. 10. What system of ecclesiastical polity 
and church-order may be considered as the 
most perfect ? 

A. That which is most in harmony with 
all the principles and precepts of Christianity, 
best secures the regular and profitable observ- 
ance of Christian ordinances, and most effectu- 
ally attains all the ends of Christian confedera- 
tion. 

Q. 11. What are the consequences of an 
error of judgment in regulating a church ? 

A. The error is not fatal to the being of a 
church, the members of which are united to- 
gether in a Christian spirit, agreeably, as they 
suppose, to the rules of the Gospel. But the 
error will be apt, in a greater or less degree, to 
mar their piety and impair their usefulness. 



12 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

Whoever insists that an association of Chris- 
tians cannot be a church, unless they are or- 
ganized and governed in strict accordance with 
a fixed and perfect model, must account for 
the omission of such a platform of government 
in the New Testament, and for the smiles of 
divine providence on all Christian sects who 
agree in holding the Head, however they may 
differ in forms and ceremonies. 

Q. 12. Are the members of a local church 
bound to regard its by-laws and other regula- 
tions, which are not contrary to the Scriptures, 
but on the other hand, are not expressly en- 
joined in them ? 

A. Certainly. Every church must have 
some rules for conducting its business ; and 
the determination of these rules must be left 
to the good sense and judgment of the mem- 
bers, so far as the sacred writers have not par- 
ticularly mentioned and prescribed them. The 
by-laws of the church, therefore, being made 
in conformity with the divine plan, have the 
same power to bind the conscience as the 
enactments of civil government. 

Q. 13. Where does all ecclesiastical power 
and authority reside ? 

A. Primarily, in the individual communities 



OF CHURCH POLITY. 13 

or local churches ; and then in the officers of 
their appointment, and in the conventions and 
representative bodies, to which the churches 
give their sanction. 

Q. 14. Whence does a local church derive 
all its power ? 

A. From the good pleasure of God, author- 
izing and requiring Christians to form them- 
selves into churches, and to regulate all their 
proceedings according to their discretion, in 
conformity with the laws of God. 

Q. 15. Are officers an essential part of a 
church 1 

A. A church may exist without officers, like 
any other corporation or society, but it is not 
prepared to act efficiently and in a regular 
manner, until it becomes an organized body, or 
has officers to preside over its movements and 
to execute its will. 

Q. 16. What is it that imparts official power 
to the officers of a church ? 

A. Their election or appointment by the 
church according to its by-laws, and their for- 
mal induction into office agreeably to the same 
laws. 

Q. 17. What are the limits and boundaries 
of official power in the officers of a church ? 
2 



14 GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

A. Each officer possesses precisely those 
powers, and those only, which the church 
gave to him, when it appointed him to be a 
church officer. 

Q. 18. Do the Scriptures prescribe the 
number, the grades, and the powers of church 
officers 1 

A. They do not. They leave each church 
at liberty to follow its own discretion in this 
matter, and only admonish them to keep in 
sight the great principles of their religion, and 
to preserve themselves a holy, spiritual body. 

Q. 19. What obedience is due to church 
officers ? 

A. Such as is due from the citizens of a 
free State, or the members of any voluntary 
association, to those whom they have invested 
with official power. 

Q. 20. Are the churches under obligation 
to provide for the temporal support of their re- 
ligious teachers ? 

A. Yes. Consult 1 Cor. ix. 14. 2 Cor. xi. 
7-9, and 12, 13. Yet we have no evidence 
that in the primitive church any except the 
traveling preachers, Apostles, and Evangel- 
ists, derived their support from the people. 
The elders and teachers of the local churches 



OF CHURCH POLITY. 15 

probably supported themselves by their own 
industry, not being wholly occupied in the 
service of the church. 

Q. 21. In what relation do local churches 
stand to each other ? 

A. As churches, they are entirely distinct 
and independent bodies, w4th no jurisdiction or 
control over each other. But as they are asso- 
ciations of the same class of people, for the 
very same purposes, and under the same Christ- 
ian principles, the most perfect cordiality, and 
the mutual interchange of kind offices, should 
exist among them. And they may and should 
form confederacies for their common benefit, 
so far as circumstances v/ill permit ; and they 
not only may establish rules for friendly inter- 
course and correspondence, but they may or- 
ganize synods, or conventions of delegates, to 
superintend their common interests, and clothe 
them with such powers as are compatible with 
the principles of Christianity and the best 
interests of the churches. 

Q. 22. In what relation do the churches in 
any country stand to the State or civil power ? 

A. In that of voluntary associations, which 
owe obedience and respect to the laws, and 



16 GENERAL PRINCIPLES, &C. 

are entitled to protection, and to entire freedom 
in the management of their own affairs in their 
own way, provided they do not violate the 
rights of other citizens. 



CHAPTER 11. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN 
CHURCHES, OR OF THOSE WHICH WERE 
GATHERED AND ORGANIZED IN THE APOS- 
TOLIC AGE. 

Q. 23. In what acceptations or senses is 
the word Church used in the New Testa- 
ment? 

A. Sometimes it denotes the aggregate or 
whole number of professed believers of the 
gospel, or what is called the Universal Visible 
Church : see Philip, iii. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28. 
Eph. iii. 21. At other times it denotes all 
the redeemed and sanctified, or the Universal 
Invisible Church : see Matt. xvi. 18. Eph. i. 
22, and iii. 10, and v. 24, 25, &c. But most 
commonly it denotes the organized body of 
Christians assembling regularly for worship in 
a particular place, town or city, or what may 
2* 



18 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

be called a Local Church : Acts ii. 47. 1 Cor. 
xiv. 23. Acts ix. 31, and xv. 41, &c. 

Q. 24. When a Jew or Pagan was convert- 
ed to Christianity, what religious rites did he 
pass under ? 

A. He was baptized in the name of the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit : Matt, 
xxviii. 19. 

This baptism was ordinarily administered by the teach- 
er that converted him, or by an attendant of the teacher, 
and as soon as the genuineness of his conversion was 
manifested. Acts ii. 38, 41, and viii. 12, 13, 36-38, and 
ix. 18, and x. 47, 48, and xvi. 33, and xviii. 8, John iv. 
2, 1 Cor. i. 14. After such baptism, it was not un- 
common for an apostle to lay his hand upon the convert 
and pray that he might receive the Holy Spirit. Acts viii. 
15, 17, 19, and xix. 6. 

Q. 25. Did a person by passing under these 
rites become a member of any local church ? 

A. No. He thereby became no more than 
a visible Christian, or a member of the univer- 
sal visible church. Such must have been the 
case with the Eunuch, whom Philip baptized, 
Acts viii. 36, and with all the first converts in 
any place to which the gospel was carried, 
until a church could be there established. 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 19 

Q. 26. What proof is there that in the apos- 
tolic age, there were no diocesan or provincial 
or national churches embracing many congre- 
gations 1 

A. No such ecclesiastical body is men- 
tioned or alluded to, throughout the New Tes- 
tament ; the word church is never so used in 
reference to Christians : no epistle is addressed 
to sncli an ecclesiastical body ; and no action 
of any such body, or of its officers, is recorded 
in the New Testament. On the contrary, we 
find that the seven churches in the province of 
Proconsular Asia, are called " the seven 
churches of Asia," Rev. i. 4, 11, 20 ; each of 
them is designated by the city where it was 
located ; and each is addressed as a distinct 
and a whole church : Rev. ii. and iii. And 
whenever churches of any province or country 
are spoken of, they are uniformly designated 
as the churches of that province : for example, 
" the churches of Galatia" and '' the churches 
of Asia," 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 19 ; "the churches of 
Macedonia," 2 Cor, viii. 1 ; '' the churches of 
Judea," Gal. i. 22 ; Paul went through Sy- 
ria confirming the churches, Acts xv. 41. 
The general epistles of the apostles, Peter, 
James, and John, are not addressed to churches^ 



20 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

but to Christians generally, or to the individu- 
al converts in certain countries or provinces, 
just as if there were no ecclesiastical ties or 
combinations uniting them in larger masses or 
in vrell known provincial and national bodies. 

Q. 27. What evidence have we that the 
early Christians were combined together in 
regular organized bodies, or that their local 
churches were not merely fortuitous meetings 
of such Christians as happened to get to- 
gether ? 

A. 1. The brethren in each particular city 
or town had regular and permanent officers or- 
dained over them, who were charged with the 
performance of appropriate functions in their 
respective churches : Acts xiv. 23, and xv. 4, 6, 
23, and xx. 17. Titus i. 5, 1 Tim. v. 1, 17, 
19, and iii. 3-8, &c. James v. 14. 1 Peter 
V. 1-5. 

A. 2. Letters were addressed to the breth- 
ren, through their officers ; and their past his- 
tory and conduct as permanent bodies were 
scanned, and warnings and exhortations in re- 
gard to their future conduct addressed to them : 
see the epistles to the seven churches of Asia, 
Rev. chap. i. and ii. Philip, i. 1, and ii. 19, 
25, &c. Col. i. 1-11, 21-23. 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 21 

A. 3. The brethren were charged with the 
maintenance of watchfulness over each other, 
with caution whom they admitted to fellow- 
ship, and with the discipline and excommuni- 
cation of incorrigible offenders against the 
laws of Christianity : Matt, xviii. 15-18. Heb. 
X. 25. iThess. V. 14. 1 Cor. v. 1-13. 2 
Thess. iii. 14, 15. 

Q. 28. How were the early Christians dis- 
tributed and aggregated into these organized 
bodies, called churches ? 

A. Not by the decrees or commands of any 
ecclesiastical authorities, (as enlisted soldiers 
are distributed into companies and regiments 
by their commanding officers,) but by a volun- 
tary union among themselves, with the appro- 
bation and advice of those who were instrumen- 
tal in their conversion. 

For, in the absence of the compulsory power of either 
civil or ecclesiastical courts, the only possible way of form- 
ing churches, is by the voluntary confederation of indi- 
viduals. The primitive Christians, doubtless, followed 
the instructions and advice of the apostles and evangelists, 
but they followed as freemen. They were dra\^Ti togeth- 
er by their common views, common hopes, and common 
desire to enjoy Christian fellowship and ordinances, and 
to conform their conduct to the wiU. of Christ, and com- 
bine their strength in extending the blessings of his king- 



22 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

dom. 2 Cor. viii. 8. Acts ii. 41-47, and v. 12-14, and 
xiv. 22, 23. 

Q. 29. What limits had the primitive 
churches, both as to the number of members, 
and the extent of territory allotted to each ? 

A. No precise limits, probably, were estab- 
lished ; though ail the Christians in a city or 
town, seem to have constituted but one church, 
for we never read of two churches in the same 
place. 

Yet Cenchrea, one of the ports of Corinth, a few miles 
from it, had a separate church : Rom. xvi. 1. The Greek 
word, translated "church," properly denotes an assembly 
or congregation of people called together ; and Paul, 1 
Cor. xiv. 23, speaks of " the whole church at Corinth, 
being come together into one place, and all speaking 
with tongues," as producing confusion ; and he directs 
the Corinthians to regulate their meetings, so that " all 
things be done decently and in order." The primitive 
churches seem always to have been named either from 
the city or village where the members resided, or from 
the building in which the church held its meetings. 
Rom. xvi. 5. 1 Cor. xvi. 19. Col. iv. 15. Philem. 2. 

Q. 30. Had these local churches any formal 
Articles of confederation or written Church- 
Covenants ? 

A. The new Testament does not inform us : 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 23 

but it is most probable they had neither writ- 
ten covenants, nor written creeds. Yet we 
cannot suppose them ignorant of the ends and 
objects of their union in churches, and of their 
duties and obligations as members of such fra- 
ternities. They were formed into churches 
by the apostles themselves, and the assistants 
of the apostles ; and they were instructed and 
counseled from time to time by inspired men, 
both orally and by epistles. That they had 
definite rules and regulations for their ecclesi- 
astical proceedings, is manifest. See Acts 
xvi. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 17, and xiv. 33-37. 2 Cor. 
xi. 28. 1 Thess. ii. 13, 14, and iv. 1, 2. 

Q. 31. In what relation did these primitive 
churches stand to each other ? 

A. They were completely independent bod- 
ies. That is, they had power to appoint and 
to depose their own officers, to administer dis- 
cipline, and to regulate and determine all their 
other ecclesiastical concerns, subject to no 
court of appeal or higher power having author- 
ity to reverse their decisions. They were 
united to one another by the ties of a common 
faith, common hopes, and common aims ; but 
they acknowledged no subjection or subordi- 
nation of one church to another ; nor did they 



24 COXSTITUTIOX OF THE 

in the Apostolic age enter into any confedera- 
tion of churches, thereby creating a central 
power having dominion over them all. See 
Murdock's Mosheim, Cent. I, P. IL Ch. IJ, 
§ 14, and Cent. II, P. IL Ch. IL i 1, 2. 

Q. 32. What is the eridence of this inde- 
pendency of the primitive churches ? 

A. 1. There is no account in the Scriptures 
of the appointment, or notice of the existence 
of any prelate, presbytery, or consociation of 
churches, having power to review and reverse 
the decisions of particular churches, or to over- 
rule their doings : nor is there any instance in 
which their acts were reviewed and set aside 
by any such authority. This omission to men- 
tion such a tribunal can be accounted for only 
on the supposition, that no tribunal of the kind 
existed. 

A. 2. The Apostles themselves referred to 
the brotherhood every question, not determined 
by revelation, respecting the order and govern- 
ment of the churches. The question about 
circumcision, Acts xv. 22-32, was decided by 
the joint action of the Apostles, Elders, and 
" whole church." The appointment of El- 
ders was made by a vote of the brethren. Com- 
pare Acts xiv. 23, with 2 Cor. viii. 19. The 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 25 

word rendered " ordained" in the former pas- 
sage, is rendered in the other, " chosen" of the 
churches. The sense in Acts xiv. 23, is, 
" when they had by election or vote of the 
brethren provided them with Elders in every 
church." 

A. 3. The rejection, deposition, or exclu- 
sion from the church, of imworthy teachers, 
belonged to each particular church. One of 
the seven churches of Asia is commended for 
trying false teachers. Rev. ii. 2 ; and another 
is censured for tolerating them, Rev. ii. 20. 
The churches are also commanded, 1 John iv. 1, 
to try " the spirits," that is, the teachers of re- 
ligion, for the purpose, evidently, of deciding 
who were worthy of confidence, and of forbid- 
ding those to teach in their assemblies, who 
should be found unworthy. 

A. 4. Particular churches are expressly rec- 
ognized as independent communities, admit- 
ting and excluding persons as members, Rom. 
xiv. 1, 1 Cor. V. 1-7, without appeal from 
their decisions, which manifestly includes all 
the powers of self-government. 

Q. 33. After what general pattern were the 
first Christian churches modeled and regula- 
ted? 

3 



26 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

A. In a great measure after the pattern of 
the Jewish synagogues ; and not, as some have 
supposed, after the pattern of the Mosaic in- 
stitutions for the national worship in the Tab- 
ernacle and Temple, in which there were 
three orders of proper clergymen^ the High- 
priest, the Priests, and the Levites. See this 
subject ably and fully discussed in Camp. 
Yitringa de Synagoga Vetere Libri Tres. 
Franeker. 1696, pp. 1138, 4to. See also 
Lightfoot, Horae Hebr. et Talmud, in Matt, 
iv. 23. Whateley's Kingdom of Christ, Es- 
say II, sec. 9. 

It was perfectly natural for the fcst Christians, who 
being native Jews were accustomed all their Hves to at- 
tend on the synagogues, to form and organize then: re- 
ligious fraternities, and to regulate their public worship, 
after the model of the sjTiagogue. They could have sim- 
ilar officers, manage their ecclesiastical affairs in much 
the same way, and adopt the very same modes of wor- 
ship, by merely substitutiug Christian principles and 
Christian doctrineij for those of the Rabbis. Such 
churches, like synagogues, could be erected with no diffi- 
culty, in any place or countr}^, wherever a sufficient 
number of members could be found ; and the ordinary 
worship was to be substantially the same in both, 
namely, the reading and expounding of the Holy 
Scriptures, accompanied with religious exhortations, and 
with public prayer and praise. On the contrary, the 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 27 

Christian dispensation did not require, nor would it ad- 
mit of the offices of a Highpriest, and common priests, 
with attending Levites ; nor were the ceremonies and 
the highly typical worship of the temple, which were de- 
signed to foreshadow the coming Messiah and the way 
of salvation by Him, at all suited to the noonday hght of 
gospel times, and to the more direct and spiritual wor- 
ship which God now requires. 

Q, 34. Will you state the origin, the objects, 
and the constitution of the ancient Jewish syn- 
agogues ? 

A. Synagogues appear to have formed no 
part of the original Mosaic establishment, but 
to have been a device of Ezra and the devout 
men of his times, for diiFusing religious 
knowledge and piety among the people. They 
were popular assemblies, in which all classes 
of people met together fraternally, on the Sab- 
bath and on festival days, to hear the Scrip- 
tures read and explained, to offer prayer and 
praise to God, and to receive religious instruc- 
tion from any persons competent and willing to 
give it. See Prideaux's Connections, Part I, 
B. YI. Anno 434, and Vitringa de Synagoga 
Vetere. 

As civil and sacred things in the Jewish Theocracy 
were completely blended together, all the public institu- 



28 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

tions of any Jewish city, as well the religious and litera- 
ry as the civil, were under the official direction and con- 
trol of one single board of rulers, called The Elders of 
the city. According to the Talmudic writers, this 
board consisted of three men, well read in the Jewish 
law, chosen annually and constituting a local Sanhedrim 
under the great national Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. They 
decided whether a synagogue should be builded, where it 
should be located, on what occasions it should be opened 
for public worship, what religious exercises should be 
held, who might be admitted to fellowship in that wor- 
ship, and who be excluded from it, or be " put out of the 
S3niagogue." They also attended and presided in the 
principal synagogue of their local jurisdiction, and were 
the only persons having authoritative control over the 
proceedings there. See Vitringa, p. 550-555. In conse- 
quence of their possessing this power, they were called, 
dpxio-vvdycjyoL, rulers of the synagogue. Mark v. 22, 35, 
&c. Acts xiii. 15, and xviii. 8, 17. Vitriuga, p. 610. 

But although the Elders of each city had the entire 
control of all the synagogues in it, they were not offi- 
cially, or by virtue of their relation to the synagogues, the 
persons whose duty it was to read and expound the 
Scriptures to the people, to recite the pubUc prayers, and 
to give public religious instruction. For, in ancient 
times, there were no officers in a synagogue, to whom 
these duties appropriately belonged, but all the male per- 
sons present, who were competent and of reputable char- 
acter, might be and actually were called out successively 
to perform these services, in accordance with certain 
rules of decorum and courtesy : Vitringa, p. 947. And 
hence the whole regular service of the S3magogues might 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 29 

be, and often was, performed without even the presence 
of an Elder: for there were numerous synagogues on 
which no Elder could ordinarily attend : as in gmall 
towns and villages which had no Elders, and in the 
large cities which had more synagogues than Elders. 
Nazareth had probably no Elders, (see Luke iv. 16-30,) 
and Jerusalem is said to have contained several hundred 
synagogues. 

The most indispensable functionary in a synagogue 
was the minister, vTinpirrjg, Hebr. (^&53?1 I^FH/j or 

the public servant of the congregation, who had charge at 
all times of the house, its furniture, utensils and books, and 
who, in time of worship, brought forward the sacred vol- 
ume, called forth the readers, pointed out to them the 
lessons of the day and inspected their reading ; and when 
the reading closed he returned the book to its place i 
Vitringa, p. 890. The Rabbis tell us, this functionary 
was not himself the reader of the lessons, but his duty 
was to call forth readers at each public service, seven 
persons successively, &st a priest, if one were present, 
then a Levite, and then five lajmien. While they read 
he was to look over them, and to point out their errors 
and mistakes in a low tone of voice, so that they might 
correct themselves on the spot. He also called for a 
translator. For the Scriptures were read in Hebrew, 
and translated into the vernacular tongue on the spot by 
some other person than the reader — the books of Moses, 
verse by verse, and the lessons from the Prophets, three 
vers^ at a time. And the translator must not read from 
any written translation, but must give a translation of 
his own. He might, also, paraphrase or explain the text 
3* 



30 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

if he saw fit, but he must express himself modestly and 
with no ostentation. The translating of the lesson w^as a 
less honorable function than the reading of it : Vitringa, 
pp. 979, 1018, &c. 

The Liturgy, or the written forms of prayer, (if such 
forms existed in the Apostohc age,) were few and sim- 
ple, and such as might be, and actually were, read by 
any grave and competent person in the assembly, called 
out by the minister (I^H)* Vitringa, p. 1093. But af- 
terwards the Liturgy was greatly enlarged ; and it be- 
came so comphcated that it required some experience to 
read it properly, and therefore this service was assigned 
to a particular officer in each sjmagogue : Vitiinga, p. 
1093. The man who thus led the congregation to the 
throne of grace, or who, in behalf of the assembly, pre- 
sented before God their united prayers and praise, was 

called on this account, the('n^^i2 rT^btS) (ayys^og r^$ 
KKKWrjaiai) Angel or Messenger of the congregation : 
Vitringa, p. 905. Duiing the recitation of the prayers, 
the minister (I'Tn) waved a handkerchief from time 
to time to notify the people when to give the responses : 
Vitringa, pp. 1124, &c. 

Besides the reading of the Scriptures and the recita- 
tion of the prayers, extempore sermons or addresses to 
the people were made by one or more persons, if any per- 
sons competent to instruct happened to be present and 
were disposed to speak. These discourses were of two 
kinds ; the one in connection with the reading %i the 
Scripture lessons, and explanatory of them, the exposi- 
tor being any priest, Levite, or layman learned in the 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 31 

law, (pofxiKos,) who might be present, (Vitringa, p. 688, 
&c. :) the other after the reading of the lessons and the 
prayers, being direct addresses to the people, based on 
some passage of Scripture, or without a text, occasion- 
ally made by an Elder, (Vitringa, pp. 694, 696,) or by 
any grave and learned man in the assembly, and even 
by strangers incidentally present: Vitringa, p. 704. 
Jesus Christ and his Apostles often thus preached in the 
synagogues: Matt. iv. 23, and xiii. 54. Luke iv. 16. 
John vi. 59, and xviii. 20. Acts iv. 20, and xiii. 5, 14- 
16, andxiv. 1, and xvii. 2, 17, and xviii. 4, 26. 

Q. 35. In what respects were the order and 
government of the primitive churches different 
from those of synagogues ? 

A. 1. As Christ's kingdom is not of this 
world, the officers of a church had no civil 
power, and could inflict no civil pains or pen- 
alties on offenders. 

A. 2. As there was at first only one church 
in a city, each church had its own board of El- 
ders ; who of course were the proper and ap- 
propriate officers of that church, and were or- 
dinarily present to direct and to take an active 
part in all the meetings of the church, whether 
for business or for worship. 

A. 3. The board of Elders in a church 
seems not to have been limited to just three 



32 CONSTITUTION^ drC, 

members, nor to have been annually renewed 
by re-election. 

A. 4. Instead of one (li^n) Deacon, the 

churches seem to have had several, and they 
probably performed a greater variety of duties 
than were assigned to the Deacons of syna- 
gogues. 

A. 5, The vrorship in the primitive churches, 
though conducted on the same social principles, 
was probably less conformed to a fixed and 
established rubric ; for there was not a formal 
liturgy, and probably no stated lessons of 
Scripture to be read. 



CHAPTER III. 

OFFICERS OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 

Q. 36. What general classification would 
you make of the officers in the primitive 
church ? 

A. They may be divided into two classes — 
officers in the church universal, and officers 
over single local churches. 

Q. 37. What officers in the primitive 
churches were of the first class 1 

A. The Apostles and their coadjutors, com- 
monly called Evangelists. 

Q. 38. What was the Apostolic office, and 
how did it originate ? 

A. The Apostles were those extraordinary 
officers of the Church Universal, who were 
instructed and commissioned by Christ him- 
self, to be his immediate legates or ambassa- 
dors to all nations, and the authorized publish- 
ers and expounders of the Christian religion^ 



34 OFFICERS OF THE 

not only to that, but to all subsequent gen^a- 
tions ; and who were enabled to authenticate 
their mission by miracles : Matt, xxviii. 18-20. 
Mark xvi. 15-20. John xv. 15, 16, 18-31, 26, 
27. 2 Cor. V. 19, 20. 

Q. 39. What official powers did the Apos- 
tles possess ? 

A. They had power to give authoritative ex- 
positions of the Christian religion, and to ad- 
minister all Christian ordinances everywhere. 
They were also authorized to instruct, exhort, 
and admonish men of all classes, conditions, 
and ranks in the church, and out of it ; but 
they had no power to command or to coerce. 
Their power was only moral or persuasive. 

In all their epistles, they state authoritatively what 
ought to be done, and why ; but they never say, By vir- 
tue of my Apostohc office, I command or decree that 
you do thus and so. On the contrary, after an exposition 
of Christian duty, they entreat, exhort, admonish, and 
urge by motives suited to persuade. Thus, 1 Thess. iv. 
10-12. Philem. v. 8-10. 1 Cor. chap. v. See also the 
latter part of all the epistles of Paul. They contain no 
official decrees, no judicial sentences, but most elaborate 
coimsels, admonitions, and exhortations. 

Q. 40. In what relation did the Apostles 
stand to the local churches ? 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 35 

A. In the relation of founders, fathers, 
guides, and friends ; but not in that of official 
rulers and governors. They neither enacted 
by-laws for them, decided controversies in 
them, nor executed their commands. They 
were to the local churches very much what the 
ancient prophets were to the Jewish Church, 
not their officers, but the guides of both officers 
and private members. 

Q. 41. Did they divide the world into apos- 
tolical provinces, each occupying one as his 
exclusive charge or field of labor ? 

A. No : they made no formal division, but 
they agreed from time to time in which direc- 
tion to travel, and among what classes of peo- 
ple each should especially labor. Thus Paul 
was more the Apostle of the Gentiles, and Pe- 
ter the Apostle of the Circumcision : Gal. ii. 7, 
8, 9. See also 2 Cor. x. 13-16. 

Church history has preserved some vague traditions of 
their separating and going iato different fields of labor. 
Euseb. B. Ill, Ch. I. Moshiem's Institutes, Cent. I., 
P. I, Ch. IV, Sec. 1, 6. Yet we repeatedly find two or 
more of them present and exercising their office in the 
same place, and in one instance disagreemg and con- 
tendmg: Gal. ii. 11-13. Acts xv. 6, 13, 22. Their 
epistles were also addressed, sometimes to the same lo- 



36 OFFICERS OF THE 

cal churches. Thus Peter addressed the Christians scat- 
tered throughout " Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithynia," in all which provinces Paul labored 
much, planted many churches, and addressed epistles to 
several of them. 

Q. 42- What was the office of the Evan- 
gelists ? 

A. As the twelve Apostles could not person- 
ally preach the Gospel everywhere, and nurse 
adequately all the infant churches till they were 
able to dispense with foreign aid, they chose the 
most enlightened and competent of their fellow 
Christians to be their assistants, their travel- 
ing companions, and their envoys to visit and 
reside temporarily in certain districts of coun- 
try, in order to instruct the converts more fully 
and organize them into churches. Besides 
these immediate coadjutors of the Apostles, 
many other of the early Christians took upon 
them the office of public teachers and propa- 
gators of Christianity. And they were en- 
couraged by the Apostles in doing so, for in 
that early age, any private Christian might 
preach the Gospel and administer its ordinan- 
ces, without any formal license or consecra- 
tion to the work. 

That unordained men were encouraged to preach the 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 37 

Gospel, and were useful, is apparent from the history of 
Apollos, Acts xviii. 24-28, who, being merely a disciple 
of John the Baptist, but mighty in the Scriptures, when 
instructed by Aquila and his wife Priscilla, immediately 
commenced preaching at Ephesus, and was thence 
recommended to Corinth, where he was so successful a 
preacher, that Paul says, 1 Cor. iii. 6, " I have planted, 
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." See 
Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, vol. i. p. 58, and 
Coleman's Christian Antiquities, p. 49. 

Q. 43. Have the offices of Apostles and 
Evangelists continued to exist in the Christian 
church down to modern times ? 

A. The office of Apostles has not continued, 
and from the nature of it, could not become 
permanent. But the office of Evangelists, 
under diffigrent regulations, has existed in all 
ages ; and it still continues in the missionaries 
to the unevangelized, and in the ministers of 
the Gospel who labor among the feeble and 
vacant churches, or who otherwise serve the 
Church Universal, without having the pastoral 
care of any local church. 

Q. 44. What officers of the second class, or 
officers of local churches, are recognized in 
the New Testament ? 

A. Two distinct orders, namely, Elders and 
Deacons. 

4 



38 OFFICERS OF THE 

Q. 45. What were the Elders of a local 
church ? 

A. A Board of their most competent men, 
appointed to take the oversight of the little 
community, and to manage all its concerns, 
agreeably to the by-laws of the association. 

Q. 46. What evidence have we that they 
were a Board ? 

A. 1. There was a plurality of elders in 
each church. Acts xiv. 23, and xv. 4, and xx. 
17. Titus i. 5. James V. 14. 1 Pet. v. 1. 

A. 2. They are always addressed collec- 
tively. See Acts xx. 17. Phil. i. 1. 

A. 3. We find no intimation of any distinc- 
tion of rank or power among them. 

A. 4. Christian churches were modeled after 
the form of the Jewish Svnaoroo^ues, which are 
acknowledged to have been under the control 
of a Board of Elders. 

If these elders constituted a Board, they 
would of course need, and doubtless had, a 
Moderator or Chairman. See Yitringa, de 
Synag. Yet. Lib. I, Cap. II. 

Q. 47. What were their official titles, or 
designations as officers ? 

A. Their most common title is that of 
Elders ; as in the texts above cited : but they 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. « 39 

were also called Bishops or Overseers ; as in 
Phil. i. 1. Acts XX. 28. 1 Tim. iii. 2. Titus 
i. 7. 

That the titles Bishops and Elders designate one and 
the same order of church officers in the New Testament, 
has been so fully shown by various writers, from Jerome 
A. D. 380 to the present time, that it is unnecessary to 
repeat the proof. See, for example, Gieseler's Text 
Book, by Cunningham, vol. i, sec. 29, Note 1 ; and 
sec. 32, Note 2. 

Q. 48. How were the Elders appointed and 
inducted into office ? 

A. They were elected by the brethren of 
their respective churches, and were solemnly 
invested with office by prayer and the imposi- 
tion of hands. 

The proofs that local churches appointed 
their own Elders by election, are : 

1. All the designations to office in the local 
churches described in the New Testament, 
were by the free choice of the people ; for 
example, the seven Deacons, Acts vi. 6, and 
" the brother — chosen of the churches to travel 
with Paul" to Jerusalem, and carry the contri- 
butions to the saints there, 2 Cor. viii. 19. 
Delegates were also chosen by the church at 
Antioch, to go to Jerusalem, with Paul and 



40 OFFICERS OF THE 

Barnabas, to the consultation respecting the 
circumcision of Gentiles, Acts xv. 2. And 
even a successor to Judas in the Apostleship, 
was elected in a popular assembly, who chose 
two men, and then cast lots between them, 
Acts i. 23-26. 

2. The Apostles nowhere claimed controll- 
ing power over local churches, or asserted the 
right to appoint their officers. On the con- 
trary, they treated these churches as bands of 
brethren, perfectly free and independent, and 
only took upon themselves to make known to 
them the will of God. 

3. Local churches being altogether volun- 
tary associations, (Ques. 28.) their right to ap- 
point their own officers would follow of course. 

4. The principle, that no elder or bishop 
should be imposed on any church, but that their 
free consent was necessary, previous to in- 
duction, continued during three centuries. See 
Murdock's Mosheim, Cent. I, P. II, Ch. II, 
Sec. 6. Coleman's Christian Antiquities, p. 60. 
Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, vol. i, 
p. 158. That the ordinary mode of inducting 
a person into office, or of designating him to 
any important service in the churches, was by 
prayer, with fasting, and the laying on of hands. 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 41 

by the Presbytery or Elders, seems manifest 
from Acts vi. 6, and xiii, 3, and xiv. 22, 1 Tim. 
iv. 14. 

Q. 49. What were their official powers and 
duties 1 

A. Their official powers were precisely such 
as the constitution of the churches gave them. 
They were properly executive officers, and 
not either legislative or judicial. Their duties 
were, to preside in all meetings of the body, 
aid in their deliberations, and execute their 
decisions ; to see that the by-laws were carried 
into effect ; and to be ensamples, guides, and 
counselors to all the brethren. 

That such were their powers and duties, appears from 
the significant titles given them, from the terms which 
denote their officied acts, and from the qualifications 
which were required in them. They bore the significant 
titles of Overseers or Bishops, (imcKOTroLj) Acts xx. 28. 
Philip, i. 1. 1 Tim. iii. 2. Titus i. 7. Of Shepherds or 
Pastors, i:oijiives, Acts iv. 11. And of Leaders or Pre- 
siders, -goeToiTei, or hi TtpoXraiiEvoi, 1 Tim. v. 17. Rom. 
xii 8. 1 Thes. v. 12. And their official acts were de- 
noted by the expressive terms, to guard and guide, as a 
shepherd his flock, -oifiaiveiv, Acts xx. 28. 1 Peter v. 2. 
To oversee, i-i-Ko-eZv, 1 Peter v. 2. To take care of, 
tTTifii^eTSai, 1 Tim. iii. 5. To watch, yo-qyoozXv, Acts xx. 
31. To Ae/^ or aid the weak, avri\an3dveiBai, Acts 
XX. 35. 

4* 



43 OFFICERS OF THE 

The qualifications reqiiii'ed in. an Elder were, not deep 
^earning, theological or secular : not skill and sound 
judgment m ex|:)oundin;T the Scriptui'es ; not popular elo- 
quence or superior talents for pubHc speaking : but solid, 
consistent pietv. an exemplary life, discreetness in all their 
conduct, and such a weight of character and such \^ns- 
dom of speech, as would fit them to be the influential or 
head men m then respective communities. See 1 Tun. 
in. 2-7. Titus i. 6-9. See also Xeander's Apostel- 
geschichte, I, p. 123, &:c. 

Q. 50. Was it not their official duty to preach 
to the congregations, to lead in their public 
devotions, and to administer the holy sacra- 
ment ? 

A. No. They were not by virtue of their 
office, the public teachers of religion nor the 
leaders of the public devotions ; but like the 
Elders in the synagogue, they presided over 
the worship and the reading and exposition of 
the Scriptures in the Christian assemblies. At 
the same time they had the right, as individ- 
uals, to take an active part in public worship, 
so far as they saw fit, and as seemed to meet 
the wants and wishes of the congTegation. 
And as they were the most intelligent and 
influential men in their respective bodies, we 
may suppose, that ordinarily they were the 
chief speakers in the worshiping assemblies. 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 43 

except when an Apostle or Evangelist, or some 
one having extraordinary spiritual gifts, was 
present. 

That all male persons had the right of speaking in the 
assembhes of the early Christians, and that the privilege 
was sometimes abused, seems to be clearlj^ represented in 
1 Cor. xiv. 23-37. The right would also be inferable from 
the practice of the synagogue, after which the first 
Christian churches copied. See Ques. 34, 35. See also 
Gieseler's Text Book, by Cminingham, I, p. 58. Nean- 
der's Apostelgeschichte, I, pp. 30, <k,c. 127, &:c. Cole- 
man's Christian Antiquities, p. 49. 

The fact that the reUgious ser^dces of the Primitive 
Christian assembhes were performed by the brethren, 
without distinction, shows that those services were not 
considered the official work of the elders, Heb. x. 25- 
Still, those elders who were distinguished for their labors 
in " word and doctrine," deserved the highest considera- 
tion for their pecuHar exertions and usefulness, 1 Tim* 
V. 17. And it was a matter of importance m selectmg 
persons for this office, that men well qualified to teach 
should be chosen, rather than those who would not turn 
then- official influence to so good an account, and who 
would be less able to silence the cavils of the enemies of 
Christianity, 1 Tim. ili. 2. 

Q. 51. What were the functions of Deacons 
in the early churches ? 

A. They seem to have been assistants to the 
Elders, or the public servants of the churches. 
They acted as messengers and envoys, aided 



44 OFFICERS OF THE 

in keeping order in the public assemblies, as- 
sisted in the administration of ordinances, and 
in the collection and distribution of the public 
alms, and under the direction of the elders, 
performed various minor pastoral duties. 

The Scriptures, indeed, afford us but little dii'ect in- 
formation respecting their functions. The word Deacon 
properly denotes one who serves : but it is used with great 
latitude in the New Testament. The seven Deacons 
mentioned m Acts vi. 1-6, were appointed for a special 
purpose ; and we ought not to limit the permanent office 
to the single dut}^ of those special officers. If we con- 
sider the qualifications for the office of a Deacon, in 1 
Tim. iii. 8, 13, we shall see that very nearly the same 
qualifications were required m Deacons as in Elders: from 
wliich we may infer that theh duties could not have been of 
a totally different natm-e. Besides, it seems to be intimated 
in V. 13, that the office of Deacon was often a stepping 
stone to the office of Elder. 

Q. 52. Who were the Prophets and the men 
of spiritual gifts, in the Apostolic age, and 
what were their functions ? 

A. Inspiration and miraculous powers were, 
in those times, conferred not only on the twelve 
Apostles, but also, in a lower degree, on the 
Evangelists and teachers, and on other eminent 
Christians, for the edification of the church, 
and for the confirmation of the Christian doc- 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 45 

trine : and all these special divine influences 
were called spiritual gifts, p^a^is'^xara 'Tr'vsufxocTixa, 
because they proceeded from the Holy Spirit, 
working in those who possessed them. 

These gifts were, undoubtedly, of inestimable value to 
the nascent churches : but as they have long since ceased 
to exist, (their place being supplied by the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures, and by an educated Christian min- 
istry,) we cannot expect to obtain very distinct concep- 
tions of their various phases and operations. It appears 
that they were imparted as quite an ordinary thing, by 
the Apostles to their baptized fellow Christians, by prayer 
and the imposition of hands. Acts viii. 15-19, x. 44-47, 
xi. 15-17, xix. 6. 2 Tim. i. 6. Heb. ii. 4. 

Concerning these spiritual gifts, their variety, their dis- 
tribution, their uses, and their procedure from the Holy 
Spirit, Paul discourses at large, in his first Epistle to the 
Corinthians, chap. xii. It would seem, from his account, 
that they were shared in some measure or degree, by 
nearly aUtrue believers in Christ, vs. 7, 11, 12, &c., and 
that by means of them the church universal became Hke 
an organic living body, composed of many members, 
each fitted for some office or function beneficial to the 
whole. But aU these possessors of spiritual gifts could 
not have been office-bearers in the churches ; for we 
cannot suppose so great a number and variety of public 
officers as there were of spiritual gifts. Besides, the 
Apostle himself, v. 12, &c., clearly intimates, that all 
the possessors of such gifts were not clothed with official 
power over the body ; neither should they aspire to be 
but should be content with filling the sphere allotted to 



46 OFFICERS OF THE 

them : see also Rom. xii, 3-8. There is another pas- 
sage, Eph. iv. llj 12, in wliich Paul has been supposed 
to enumerate the proper chm"ch officers instituted by- 
Christ liimself. But the passage seems rather to enu- 
merate the principal functionaries, whether officers or 
not officers, by whom the Gospel dispensation was made 
efficient in its first promulgation. 

Q. 53. What was the nature and form of 
Ordination in the Apostolic times ? 

A. Ordination was simply induction into 
office, or the instalhnent of an officer elect : 
and it consisted in the devout worship of God, 
with fasting and prayer, and the imposition of 
hands. Acts vi. 6, xiii. 3. 

That ordination ui the apostolic times was not a proper 
cojisecration, hke that of Aaron and his sons to the 
priesthood, or like that of the Christian clergy in after 
ages, appears from the terms by which it is expressed. 
The appropriate tenns for consecration, as appHed to 
Aaronic priests, and to later Christian priests, were 
reXetcoaig and reXeiooj. See the Sept. Ex. xxix. 10, '22, 
26,27,29,31, 33, 34, 35: and elsewhere, often: also 
Suicer's Thesaur. Eccles. II, p. 1261 : and compare 
Heb. vii. 28. But neither of these tenns is ever used in 
the New Testament to denote the ordination of church 
officers. The words used for this purpose are, ^eiporovico, 
to elect or to appoint, Acts xiv. 23 — Kadirrifii, to estab- 
lish, to set up, Titus i. 5 — and riSrini, to constitute, 
1 Tim. ii. 7. And neither of these words in their strict 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 47 

and proper sense imports any thing more than a shnple 
appointment to office, or an installment in office. See 
Suicer's Thesam*. Eccles. II, p. 1512, &c., and Sclilens- 
ner's Greek Lexicon. 

Q. 54. Did ordination convey to the per- 
son official powers, which he could not other- 
wise possess ! 

A. No. The ordination was rather a recog- 
nition of him as one already clothed with offi- 
cial powers, by virtue of his previous election 
or appointment to office. He must necessarily 
enter on his official duties at some particular 
time, and it was very suitable to mark that 
occasion by devoutly commending him to God, 
in a public assembly, and by supplicating the 
divine blessing on his official life. 

Q. 55. -Were the Apostles and Evangelists 
and all the officers of local churches thus or- 
dained ? 

A. We have no evidence that they were ; 
for in the New Testament, so little importance 
is given to ordinations, that no precept is re- 
corded requiring them, and they are seldom 
mentioned, and then only casually. 

We have no accomit of the ordination of any one of 
the Apostles or Evangehsts, previous to his entering on 
his office. Indeed, the only ordination of individuals 



48 OFFICERS OF THE 

mentioned in the New Testament are. (1.) that of the 
seven Deacons, Acts vi. 6, (2.) that of Paul and Barna- 
bas by the church at Antioch, when about to commence 
their missionary tour, Acts xui. 2, 3, and (3.) that of 
1 Timothy iv. 14, where Paul speaks of the gifts that 
Timothy had received by the laying on of the hsmds 
of the Presbytery and of Paul himself, 1 Tim. iv. 14. 2 
Tim. i. 6. Besides these particular ordinations, we have 
general notices of the ordinations of Elders in every 
church or city. Acts xiv. 23. Titus 1.5. 

Q. 56. Who had the power of ordaining 
officers in the primitive church ? 

A. Those, doubtless, who had the power 
of electing or appointing such officers ; provi- 
ded they were competent to conduct the sol- 
emn exercises in a proper manner. 

But the new fonned churches would, of course, wish 
to have the presence and assistance of an Apostle or 
EvangeUst, to perform for them the solenm services, and 
to point out the duties both of the officers and those over 
whom they were placed. And in the older churches, 
the presence and aid of neighboring church officers and 
brethren would naturally be desired ; and would greatly 
tend to strengthen the ties of fellowship and fraternal 
feelmg among contiguous churches. 

Q. 57. Did the officers of the primitive 
church, by virtue of their ordination, become 
a distinct order of men from the people, 



PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 49 

such as the Jewish Priests, and such as the 
Clergy of the Christian church, in subsequent 
ages ? 

A. No. They did not become a distinct crJer 
of men, clothed with a peculiar sanctity in the 
household of faith ; but were merely the breth- 
ren charged with certain duties, and invested 
with certain powers, for the common good of 
the church. 

See, on this fundamental point, Neander's 
Kirchengeschichte, vol. i, p. 276, &c., 299, 
300. Gieseler's Text Book, by Cunningham, 
vol. i, sec. 29, p. 58. Henke's Kirchengesch. 
vol. i, sec. 13, p. 72, &c. G. J. Plank's 
Gesch. der chrishl. kirchl. Gesellschafts-Yer- 
fassung, Jahr 68-300, ch. x., vol. i, 149, &c., 
and Coleman's Christian Antiqq., p. QQ, 67. 

Both the Jewish Levitical Law and the Pa^an reh- 
gions recognized a holy order of Priests — consecrated 
persons, standinof in nearer relations to the Deitv than 
other men, and who alone could perform certam reli- 
gious acts, in a manner acceptable to God and profita- 
ble to the people. But primitive Christianity acknowl- 
edged only one Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
through whom all beHevers may dravr near to God, and 
make known their wants and present their sacrifices of 
praise. These fundamental principles were everywhere 
inculcated by Christ himself, and by all his Apostles. 
5 



50 OFFICERS, &C. 

But in the next age after the Apostles, the Christian 
Churches began td copy after the nations around them ; 
and very soon the officers of the churches claimed to be 
a Christian Clergy, made so by their Ordination, and 
possessing important powers and prerogatives, which 
they received directly from Christ through the hands of 
his Apostles and ministers. And thenceforth Ordina- 
tion became an awful and mysterious transaction, 
which none but consecrated hands could validly per- 
form, and which, when so performed, transformed a 
Christian broLher into a clergyman, a holy man, a priest 
of God, or u.t least, a competent dispenser of the sacra- 
ments, and an authorized ruler and teacher in the 
church. (See Planck, ubi supra, p. 159, &c.) 



CHAPTER lY. 

CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERN- 
MENT OF THE CHURCHES AFTER THE APOS- 
TOLIC AGE. 

Q. 58. Did the primitive chiirclies retain, 
for a long time, their original form and organi- 
zation ? 

A. No. Changes began to be made as 
soon as the Apostles were gone, and change 
after change succeeded, till gradually the 
whole system of church order was subverted. 

Q. 59. Are we able to trace accurately the 
commencement and the progress of all these 
changes ? 

A. We are not ; because the history of the 
church is nearly a blank for about a century 
after the Apostles, and it affords but scanty in» 
formation for a much longer period. 

The \viitmgs of the Apostolic Fathers are meagre 
performances, and, with the exception of the first epis- 
tle of Clemens Romanus, are of very questionable au- 



52 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

thenticity. The writer next after them is Justin Mar- 
tyr, who lived about the middle of the second century. 
He was follov/ed by the other Apologists, and by Irenas- 
us and Clemens Alexandrinus, who close the list of 
Christian vmters in the second century. Now, of all 
these writers of the two first centuries, not one has at- 
tempted any regular delineation of the constitution and 
order of the Christian Churches in his day ; and it is 
only on a few occasions that they incidentally drop some 
remarks bearing on the subject. And when we come 
to the more voluminous writers of the third century, who 
give us a fuller view of the chm'ches in their age, we 
find that very great changes had already been made, 
of the reality of which, and of their origin and causes, 
these writers had very inadequate conceptions. 

Q. 60. What was, probably, the first im- 
portant change in the form and order of the 
primitive churches ? 

A. The several churches began to have 
their appropriate religious teachers, M^ho resi- 
ded constantly among them, presided in their 
assemblies for worship, taught and instructed 
the people, administered the sacraments, of- 
fered up the public prayers, and were at the 
head of the board of Elders in each church. 

This important and salutary change would naturally 
occur in the progress of events. For, by continued 
practice and study, prominent individuals would grad- 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 53 

ually acquire talents for teaching and ministering in 
holy things superior to those of their brethren : and as the 
Spiritual Gifts, doubtless, gradually ceased when the 
Christian Scriptures became known, and as study and re- 
flection supplied the place of supernatural enlig^hten- 
ment, these brethren would of course become the 
chief speakers in the public assemblies of their respect- 
ive churches, or would come to perform regularly and 
constantly much the same services as had been per- 
formed by the Apostles and Evangelists when occasion- 
ally present. They would indeed become a sort of per- 
manent and stationary successors to the itinerant 
Apostles and Evangelists. That is, they would be- 
come, in the language of modern times, the regular 
pastors and teachers of their respective churches ; yet 
without excluding the other brethren, and especially the 
Elders, from the occasional exercise of their gifts. 

These proper teachers and pastors of individual 
churches were, doubtless, many of them persons who 
had acquired their knowledge and talents for the minis- 
try, while fiUing the offices of Deacon first, and then of 
Elder. And if so, they would be already clothed with 
the office of Elder, at the time they became official 
teachers. And if they had other training, or had come 
from other churches, they would, doubtless, at once be 
elected to the office of Elder. And being Elders, and 
the principal functionaries in their churches, as well as 
the most enlightened and most eloquent members of 
their boards, they would of course become the most ac- 
tive and influential men in the board of Elders. They 
would be made the standing Moderators, as well as the 
chief executive officers of those boards ; and the other 
5* 



54 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

Elders, by yielding deference to their opinions, and re* 
lying upon their wisdom and powers of execution, 
would gradually come to leave most tilings to their dis- 
cretion, or would themselves become Httle more than the 
otBcial advisers, or the privy council of these exclusive 
pastors and teachers. And when this became the state 
of things, the official titles. Bishop and Presbyter, 
common to all members of the board, would have a high- 
er import, when appHed to them ; and in process of 
time might become appropriated to them exclusively, 
as seems to have been the fact near the close of the 
second centmy. 

The earliest intimation of the existence of such an 
order of officers in local churches, is, perhaps, near the 
end of the first centmy, in the superscriptions of the 
Apocalyptical epistles to the Ajjg els of the seven chm'ches 
of Proconsular Asia. Such official teachers of single 
churches may, for a tune, have been called the Angels 
of their churches, in allusion to the title Angels of the 
Congregation, m the Jewish Synagogues. (See the 
answer to Ques. 31.) But against so early a rise of 
this class of officers, the authority of Clemens Romanus 
seems to militate : for he represents the church of Cor- 
inth, about the year 96, as ha^ang only two kinds of offi- 
cers, namely, a company of Elders or Bishops, and a 
number of Deacons ; and he reproves the Corintliians 
for having factiously displaced some of their Elders, 
when they had done notliing censurable. (See his epist. 
I. ad Corinth, § 42, 44, 47, 54, 57.) Justin Martyr, 
however, about fifty years later, very distinctly men- 
tions a church officer, whom he calls the President, 
{b npoes-ioi,) who instructed the people every Sunday, of- 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 55 

fered the prayers, blessed the Sacramental bread and was 
the head and leader of the whole Christian worship. 
(See his Apol. II, p. 97, 98, ed. Paris, 1636. 

Q. 61. What was the next step of depart- 
ure from the form and order of the primitive 
churches ? 

A. The ecclesiastical functionaries gradu- 
ally imbibed the idea, that their offices were 
of divine appointment ; that the powers and 
prerogatives they possessed, did not come to 
them from their churches, but directly from 
Christ through a canonical ordination ; that 
they, of course, constituted a proper clergy, a 
higher and holier order of persons than the 
laity ; and that, by divine right, it belonged to 
them, and to those delegated by them, to rule 
and govern the church, to admit and exclude 
members, to preach and instruct the people, to 
administer the sacraments, and to conduct on 
all occasions the public worship of God. 

These ideas only glimmer faintly in the un- 
adulterated writings of the second century ; 
but in the third and fourth centuries, especial- 
ly in the latter, they stand out in bold relief in 
the writings of various ecclesiastics, and in 
the acts of the synods or councils. 



56 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

This supposed divine right of Clergymen only, to bear 
rule in the churches, and to officiate in holy tilings, is 
the radical principle of that High Churchism, which 
still prevails among various denominations of Christians. 
For it is, comparatively, of little importance how many 
grades of church officers we admit, or what distribution 
of power exists among them, provided they are allowed 
to grasp and to wield all ecclesiastical power, so that 
the laity have no authority in sacred things, but are sub- 
jected to the absolute authority of their spiritual lords. 

Q. 62. What simultaneous change occurred 
in regard to the supposed nature and efficacy 
of religious rites and ordinances ? 

A. As the ministers of religion were sup- 
posed to have a divine commission , so all their of- 
ficial acts and administrations were supposed to 
be accompanied by a mysterious divine efficacy. 
And hence, all religious rites and ordinances, 
instead of being regarded merely as the ap- 
pointed mediums of worship, acceptable to 
God and profitable to men so far as they were 
attended with right views and feelings in the 
worshiper, came to be regarded with reverence 
for their own sake, and to be relied upon as 
the direct and proper mediums of sanctifica- 
tion. For they were regarded as either the 
channels through which God causes his grace 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 57 

to flow, or as having in themselves a mysteri- 
ous efficacy, and, in either case, as transform- 
ing the character and changing the state of all 
those to whom they were duly administered. 

Thus Christian Baptism became, either itself regen- 
eration, or the appointed channel of the regenerating 
grace of God ; and thus, in either way, it would be the 
infallible medium of regeneration, and the door of salva- 
tion to sinful man. In hke manner, the Eucharist, if 
consecrated by one duly authorized, was an appointed 
and efficient means for sanctifying the heart. So also 
the official blessing of a clergyman duly ordained, was 
efficacious before God, and insured the divine favor to 
the persons on whom it was bestowed. The canonical 
clergy, moreover, could give a valid Absolution to sin- 
ners, on certain conditions : or they could withhold such 
Absolution, and thereby endanger their eternal salva- 
tion. Even the church buildings, and tlieir vessels and 
furniture, when duly consecrated by these ministers of 
God, acquired such a sanctity, that it was sacrilege to 
use them for any worldly purpose whatever. Moreover, 
the sign of the cross, and holy water, and lighted can- 
dles, and the smoke of incense, and other sacred cere- 
monies and objects, were supposed to be of essential 
benefit to the souls and bodies of men, when used with 
due reverence and according to the established ritual. 
But it was canonical ordination, or the consecration of 
church officers, by such as had received consecration in 
a direct line from the Apostles, which was supposed to 
have the most potent and mysterious efficacy. It trans- 



58 THE CRURCHES AFTER THE 

formed a common Christian into a Clergyman, a holy 
man of God, and invested him permanently and forever 
with all the wonderful powers and prerogatives attribu- 
ted to these vicegerents of God. 

Q. 63. What change in the condition of the 
laity, grew out of these high church princi- 
ples ? 

A. When these principles became fully de- 
veloped, the condition of the laity was totally 
changed. For they lost all their sacred rights 
and privileges as members of a fraternity, or a 
voluntary association of brethren, and sunk 
into a state of complete and absolute depend- 
ence on the clergy. 

Tire d(yoY of admission to church membership could 
be opened only by the priests. And thev allowed no 
one to enter, till he had passed a long period of proba- 
tion and instruction in the character of a Catechumen ; 
nor even then, without sponsors or God-fathers to give 
bonds for him. When admitted into the church, the 
laity held all their privileges at the pleasure of the 
priests. In the public worship — as in that of the Jew- 
ish temple — the priests stood between the people and 
the Deity. The priests alone could approach the altar, 
offer the public prayer and praise, explain the scriptures, 
instruct and exhort the people, and administer the holy 
ordinances. Through them alone, as the channels of 
intercourse, could the laity commune publicly with their 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 59 

Maker and Redeemer in any divine ordinance, or obtain 
from it the precious benefits which it was intended to 
convey to men. In the discipline of the church, and in the 
management of all its temporal concerns, the laity were 
no longer the citizens of a fi'ee republic, having a voice 
in the enactment of its lavrs and in the regulation of 
both its external and internal affairs. For all ecclesias- 
tical constitutions and laws were supposed to be either 
enactments of Jesus Christ himself, or the decrees and 
decisions of his divinely appointed, and divinely guided, 
vicegerents ; and therefore they were all held to be so 
sacred, that no layman might question theii' wisdom, or 
even presume to interpret them according to his own 
discretion. The condition of laymen in the church was 
like that of minor children in a household, who have no 
voice in the regulation and govermnent of the family, no 
control of its property, no disposal of any thing that be- 
longs to it. Their duties and obHgations as church 
members, were all included in perfect submission, pro- 
found reverence, and uxiplicit obedience to those whom 
God had constituted their spuitual guardians and 
guides. 

Q. 64. What was the origin of the Episco- 
pal Hierarchy, with three orders of Clergy, in 
the Christian Church ? 

A. The introduciion of stated teachers of 
local churches, as described under the 60th 
question, and the gradual transfer to them of 
the principal functions both of worship and 
government, produced in the end three kinds 



60 



THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 



of officers in each church, Tiz : the Pastor or 

Bishop, jiist describe-^. *lie other Presbyters 
who were his co; St : - and assistants, and 
the : lie servants of 

the c^u::_^. _^..... ::.'-'- :;n'"ers came to 

be regarded as a t . order of 

con^r con- 

side-T:, ?^ :: '.::_; :;.:.:_. ^>- ^ -^est. 
61,) the}' very naturally began to 



themselves v 

Mosaic dispe: 
200 -'-^ .-',. 



txiat. bv Givii 
nect^d 'v:*h 



Levitical cler^ 

nd, about the }^ _ 7 

titles of Highpriest, Priest, 

'V applied to them: 

: licidy maintained 

churches con- 

: f :':::.:::. c* each city 



shou_ : , : : r : 
and be iiiniishf :. 


3 diocese, 
iber 


of priests and dc.: V. .. 


,._.._ .- >-..^plete 


episcopal hierarchy 




It is not difficult to conceive b - 


, ::: rV- ---- = s -f 


things, such a radical change in : 




churches might take place. F:t 




a large city, (e. g. Jerosale 




came too nmnexoiis to a- 




bousC; they would b 


et sepaiatdyin 


diflferent places ; and 


= " ^obeconsid- 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 6l 

ered but one church or fraternity, and to have one prm- 
cipal Pastor or Bishop, with several assistants to supply 
the different meetings. This arrangement would afford 
opportunity for the presbyters and eyen for the Deacons, 
to be much employed in ministering to the different con- 
gregations, under the direction and supervision of the 
chief Pastor or Bishop, who might assign them their 
places of labor from week to week, or appoint them to be 
stated preachers in the several places of worship. And 
this arrangement might extend to the immediate sub- 
urbs of the city, while the several districts more remote, 
to which the city presbyters could not conveniently 
minister, might form distinct congregations, with either 
local presbyters, or dependent rural Bishops, {-x^oipc-rria- 
KOTToi,) for their pastors, but still under the supervision 
of the city Bishop. And when Christianity became es- 
tablished in any of the smaller cities, and a church 
with the usual officers was instituted, the same process 
would there go forward, as in the larger cities ; and 
thus the whole country would become divided into dio- 
ceses, with diocesan Bishops, numerous presbyters, and 
preaching Deacons. 

!N"ow when this diocesan form of churches became 
quite common, as we suppose it did as early as the 
second century, nothing would be wanting to the com- 
plete establishment of an episcopal hierarchy, but for 
the various classes of Christian ministers to arrogate to 
themselves, and the people to accord to them, the char- 
acter of a proper Clergy by divine appointment, distrib- 
uted into three orders, after the pattern of the Levitical 
priesthood, and deriving their authority from Christ 
through the medium of a canonical ordination. And if 
6 



62 ' THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

we consider how readily all religious customs and usa- 
ges acquire sanctity by age. how prone men are to at- 
tribute holiness both to persons and things in any way 
connected with religious worship, and how natm'al it is 
for all classes of men to improve every fair opportunity 
for extending their own power and influence ; and if we 
recollect also, that the people of that age were utter 
strangers to free constitutions of government in church 
or state, or were accustomed to arbitrary power in all 
public officers, whether civil or religious ; and that all 
the Pagan nations, as well as the Jews, regarded their 
respective priests as a proper clergy, a holy order of per- 
sons, invested with povv^ers which no others could 
possess, powers which they derived from the mysterious 
rites used m their consecration ; we need not, in view 
of all these circumstances, regard it as a strange thing, 
and proof of degenerate piety and unholy ambition in the, 
Christian ministry, if they, under the influence of such 
causes, gTadually swerved from the principles of the 
apostolic churches, and became at last a complete hie- 
rarchy. 

The principles here stated will account for the occa- 
sional mention of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, as 
three distinct classes of church officers, in the last half 
of the second century, and before the earliest notice of 
the hierarchy. For, we ma}- suppose, three grades of 
church officers actually existed in the church, from the 
very next age after the Apostles. And hence, if the ex- 
isting epistles of Ignatius bear marks of a later age than 
the reign of Trajan, it is not so much by their maintain- 
ing three distinct grades of church officers, Bishops, 
Presbyters, and Deacons, at the time he wrote, as by at- 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 63 

tributing to them a higher elevation above the people, 
and greater authority in the churches, than belongs to 
so early an age, or than can be found in any other wri- 
ter till near a century later. 

These principles moreover show, that the episcopal 
hierarchy was of gradual and slow growth. It did not 
start into being at once, producing a sudden and violent 
revolution, like those by which civil republics are some- 
times overturned and divested of their liberties. The 
powers originally inherent in the Christian churches 
were so gradually transferred to the officers, that, nei- 
ther the ministers nor the people were conscious of the 
change. Hence it is, that the writers of the early ages 
are so silent on the whole subject ; and hence, too, the 
modern writers on church government have very gen- 
erally agreed that Jesus Christ himself, or his Apostles, 
established from the beginning a hierarchy of some sort, 
i. e. a dominion over sacred things, in the persons of 
church officers ; and they have disagreed andxontended 
only about the form of this hierarchy ; namely, whether 
it was Papal, in the line of St. Peter and his successors ; 
or Prelatical, in a succession of diocesan Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons ; or Presbyterial, in local Pastors 
with ruling Elders, arranged in a gradation of ecclesias- 
tical courts ; or Congregational, in the settled Pastors 
of independent churches, with advisory councils. For 
all these forms of hierarchy recognize a real Clergy, 
created by consecration, and by divine right exercising 
a dominion more or less complete over sacred things. 
But, accorduig to the principles we maintain, there was 
no hierarchy of any kind set up by the Apostles ; nor 



64 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

did any exist, till about the commencement of the tJiird 
centmy. 

From an inspection of the ecclesiastical writers of 
those times, it will appear, that the churches were grad- 
ually surrendeiing their power, more and more, to their 
religious teachers, dming the whole of the second cen- 
tury ; and that those teachers felt, more and more, their 
elevation above the people, and their independence of 
all human responsibilities. Yet it was not tdl the be- 
guming of the third century, that these teachers claimed 
to be a proper Clergy^ a holy order of men di-^inely ap- 
pointed to guide and govern the churches, and traced 
their official powers to theii' regular ordination. Nor till 
then, did they hold themselves to be Highpriests, Priests, 
and Le^dtes in the Christian church, to whom belonged 
by divuie right the various prerogatives of the Levitical 
priesthood. And it was not till far into the fourth cen- 
tury, that the prelatical hierarchy attained full maturity^ 
The Papal hierarchy, which succeeded the Episcopal, 
is generally supposed by Protestants to have com- 
menced sometime in the seventh centmy, and to have 
attained its complete development about the twelfth 
centmy. 

That the ecclesiastical polit}^ fost became a hierarchy 
about the year 200, may be infeiTcd from the following 
historical facts : 

1. Anterior to that period, the Fathers never use the 
terms Clergy and Clergymen, Laity and Lay?nen, as 
designating different classes of men in the church ; nor 
do they anywhere describe the thing intended by these 
terms, under other and equivalent expressions. On the 



APOSTOLIC AGE, 65 

contrary, Tertullian, Origen, C^rprian, and all the Fath- 
ers after A. D. 200, often speak of a high and privileged 
order of men in the church, whom they not only call 
Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, &c., but also denominate 
the Clergy or Clergymen, (in Greek, KXrjpos and kXtipl- 
KOI, in Latin, Clerus and Clerici,) in distinction from 
common Christians, whom they style Laymen and the 
Laity, (in Greek, XafKot and Xadj, in Latin, Laid and 
Plebs.) Joseph Bingham (in his Antiqq., Eccles. B. I, 
ch. 5) attempts, indeed, to prove, (against Nic. Rigal- 
tins, CI. Salmasius, and Jo. Selden,) that the distinction 
between Clergymen and Lajrmen existed from the very 
first institution of churches. But his proof is a complete 
failure. He is able to find the term Laymen once only, 
in the early Fathers ; namely, in Clemens, Rom. I, Ep- 
ch. 40, where it refers exclusively to the Levitical insti- 
tutions, and of course is nothing to his purpose. And 
the word Clergy he also finds once, in a passage of 
Clemens Alex. (Quis dives salvetur,) where it certainly 
does refer to Christian ministers. But that work of Cle- 
ment was undoubtedly written after the year 200, be- 
ing a later work than his Stromata, which were com- 
posed some time in the reign of Severus. 

2. The Fathers prior to Tertullian seldom speak of 
the ordination of church officers, and never in tenns 
showing that much importance was attached to it. 
They never call it a consecration ; nor do they intimate 
that it conveys official power and rank in the church. 
On the contrary, Tertulhan, Origen, Cyprian, &c., 
speak of ordination as a most important thing, and as 
being that which makes a man a Clergymen, or raises 
him from one order among the Clergy to another. Ter- 
6* 



66 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

tullian, moreover, (de Praescript, c. 41,) charges it upon 
the Heretics, that they allowed their church officers to 
take up and lay down their offices, according to their 
convenience ; thus disregarding the sanctity of ordina- 
tion. Jerome brings the same charge against them. 
How Httle importance, on the other hand, Clemens Al- 
exandrinus attached to ordination, appears from his pla- 
cing every private Christian of enlarged knowledge and 
exemplary Hfe, though not ordained, upon a par mth 
Presb3^ers in the church. (Strom, vi. p. 793, al. 667.) 
Having stated that Matthias was elected to succeed Judas 
in the Apostleship, because he was found worthy, Cle- 
ment goes on to say : "It is therefore lawful, now, to 
enroll in the company of Apostles those who are well 
versed in the commands of the Lord, and live perfectly 
and intelligently according to the Gospel. A man is in 
reality a Presbyter of the church, and a true Minister 
of the kingdom of God, if he do and teach the things of 
the Lord, even though not ordained (^eiporovyfjLevog, 
elected, appointed) by men : nor because he is [official- 
ly] a Presbyter, is he accounted a righteous man, but 
because he is righteous, he is enrolled a Presbyter ; and, 
although here on earth he may not be honored with the 
highest seat, he will sit on the fom' and twenty thrones 
judging the people : as John speaks in the Apocalypse." 
3. Not one of the Fathers, before TertuUian, ever 
calls the Bishops and Presbyters, Priests, or the Dea- 
cons, Levites ; except in the sense in which all Christ- 
ians are Priests, agreeably to 1 Peter ii. 9. (Ye are a 
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, &c.) See Justin 
Martyr, Dial. p. 344, ed. 1636: Irenaeus, Haer. iv. c. 
20: Clemens Alex. Strom, iv. p. 635, al. 537. They 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 67 

never represent the Ministers of the New Testament as 
holding the same relation to the Christian Church, as 
the Levitical priests held to the Jewish Church. They 
do not claim for the former the prerogatives, powers, and 
inummities of the Jewish priesthood ; nor do they apply 
the Levitical laws to Christian Ministers, as if they 
were obligatory in regard to them. But TertuUian and 
the Fathers that succeeded him, do all these things. 
Thus TertuUian (de Bapt. c. 17) says: Jus habit sum- 
mus Sacerdos, qui est Episcopus. And in Cyprian, the 
words Sacerdos and Sacerdotium are of perpetual oc- 
currence, applied to Bishops and Presb5^ers, and to 
their official duties. And Jerome (contra Lucifer. To. 
II. p. 145) says : Ecclesia non est, quae non habit sa- 
cer dotes. He also (Ep. 27) calls the Deacons Levites. 
The application of the Levitical law to the Christian 
ministry, as defining its powers and prerogatives, may 
be seen everywhere in Cyprian: e. g. Epp., 55, and 
64, and 66, and 68, and 76, &c. 

Q. 67. What were the inferior orders of the 
Clergy, and when were they introduced ? 

A. They were those below the order of Dea- 
cons ; namely, Sub-deacons, Acolythists, Exor- 
cists, Lectors, Janitors, &c. The earliest 
mention of these orders is, by Cyprian and his 
contemporary, Cornelius of Rome, about the 
middle of the third century. See Cyprian, Epp. 
viii., XX., xxix., xxxiv., xxxv., xlv., Ixxviii., 
Ixxix., ed. Potter ; Cornelius, Ep, apud Euseb. 



68 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

H. E. Lib. vi. c. 43 : and Bingham. Antiqq., 
Eccl. B. III. 

The idea prevailed, especially in the Western 
churches, that as the church of Jerusalem chose only 
seven Deacons, (Acts vi. 3, 5,) there should be no more 
than seven in any one church. Hence, when the 
churches in the larger cities became very numerous and 
vt^ere divided into several congregations, seven Deacons 
were found inadequate to the discharge of all their du- 
ties, and assistants were assigned them. This is sup- 
posed to be the origin of the inferior orders, who in fact 
performed the humbler duties of the Diaconate. They 
appear first in the large churches, (e. g. Rome, Carthage, 
&c. ;) and, it is said, were wanting in some of the small- 
er churches as late as the fourth, and even the fifth 
century. Nor were these orders the same in all churches. 
Some had more than jive orders, and others less : their 
titles and duties, also, varied. These orders, we are 
told, were a sort of school, in which young men were 
trained for the higher orders. They undoubtedly served 
to increase the pomp of worship, to elevate the dignity 
of the higher orders, and to gratify the aspirings of am- 
bitious laymen, who wished to participate in the honors 
and emoluments of the Clergy. As early as the latter 
part of the fourth century, some of them at least were 
ordained, though without imposition of hands, and 
could not afterwards return to the rank of Laymen. 

Q. 68. What was the origin of Archbishops 
or Metropolitans, and of Primates and Pa- 
triarchs ? 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 69 

A. Metropolitans originated from the estab- 
lishment of Provincial Synods or Councils, 
about the bednnins^ of the iliird centurv. — 
Primates and Patriarchs were first established 
in the fourth century, under the Christian 
Emperors. 

The first clim^h foimded iii any country or pro^nnce, 
would naturally be established in its metropohs. And 
hence the IMetropolitan churches were generally the oldest, 
the largest, the most wealthy, and composed of the best 
informed Christians, in their respective countries. And 
the pastors of these churches would of course be distin- 
guished men, and would be treated wnth deference by the 
ministers of the younger and smaller churches of their 
provinces. In the latter part of the second century, 
ecclesiastical councils begaji to be held for the settling 
of difficult questions. (See Euseb. H. E. Lib. v. c. 16 
and 23-25.) ^lost of these councils assembled at the 
request of the pastors or bishops of Meti'opolitan churches, 
who took a leading part in the debates, and generally 
drew up the results and published them to the world. 
Near the close of the second centmy, or early in the 
third, annual or semi-annual provincial comicils were 
also established over the greater part of the Roman 
empire. (See Mosheim, Cent. II, P. II, ch. II, § 2, ed. 
Murdock, vol. i, p. 16, n. (2).) And in these provincial 
councils, (except in five out of six provinces of Afiica, 
in which the senior bishop always presided.) the Bishop 
of the Metropohtan church was the standing Moderator, 
with power to call special meetings. He also kept the 



70 THE CHUPwCHES AFTER THE 

records of the Coiiticil. as well as the documents of the 
ordination of all Bishops. His powers, at that period, 
seem to have been very similar to those of the IMode- 
rators of Presbyteries among the Scotch and American 
Presbyterians, or those of the Moderators of Consocia- 
tions in some parts of Xew England. Such were tlie 
Metropolitans of the third century. Afterwards their 
powers were much enlarged ; for they had jurisdiction 
over their suffragan Bishops, and appellate jurisdiction 
in all ecclesiastical causes in their respective provinces. 
In the fourth century, when Christianity became the 
estabhshed rehcrion of the Roman empire, the govern- 
ment of the churches was regulated very much after the 
form of the civil government. (See Mosheim, Cent IV, 
P. II, ch. II, § 3, voL i, p. 232, n. (2).) Subsequently, 
the great Patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, 
Jerusalem, and Alexandria, who had before been the 
most prominent MetropoHtans,. were clothed with eccle- 
siastical authority over their patriarchates ; and the 
Exarchs or Primates of certain countries took rank and 
received power, above those of shnple MetropoHtans, 
but inferior to that of the Patriarchs. 

Q. 69. When and how was the original 
independence of local churches subverted ? 

A. The independence of single churches 
was undermined and subverted in the third and 
fourth centuries, by the introduction of eccle- 
siastical councils with legislative and judicial 
powers. 

If — as we have stated — the Christians in each city or 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 71 

town, however numerous they might become, always 
remained but one community or church, and, although 
obliged to meet in separate bodies for ordinaiy worship, 
always assembled as one body for the transaction of 
business, and had one set of church officers, with a chief 
Pastor or Bishop, to superintend their affairs; and if 
these complex bodies, during the second and third cen- 
turies, gradually surrendered their powers of self-govern- 
ment, and submitted to be ruled entirely by their Minis- 
ters, who claimed to be a proper Clergy by divine right ; 
then there could no longer be any independence of 
churches, except the independence of these complex 
bodies of each other. And this independence, which 
seems to have been complete durmg the greater part of 
the second century, was afterwards gradually subverted 
by the estabhshment of Provincial and General Councils, 
with power to frame ecclesiastical Canons, binding upon 
all the bodies under thek jurisdiction. For these Canons 
were multipHed and extended, from time to time, till 
they reached every part of both discipline and worship ; 
and, by instituting the right of appeal in all cases, from 
single churches to higher tribunals, they made even the 
Bishops httle more than the executive officers of the 
statutes enacted for them by a supposed higher au- 
thority. 

Q. 70. What was tlie origin of liturgies or 
written forms of worship among Christians ? 

A. For three centuries, written formulas of 
worship were unknown among Christians. But 
after the full establishment of the Episcopal 



72 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

hierarchy, in the reign of Constantine, and the 
erection of splendid churches, with large rev- 
enues, in order to render the public worship 
more imposing, and to secure greater uniformity 
and a more perfect conformity to the mandates 
of the Bishops, some of the prelates drew up 
forms of prayer and ceremonials of worship, 
in accordance with what they considered the 
best models, and imposed them on their own 
dioceses, and recommended them to others. 
How many such liturgical works were orig- 
inally drawn up, and by whom, cannot now be 
ascertained. We only know that they orig- 
inated in this age, that they were soon brought 
into general use, and that although each bishop 
had the right to prescribe forms of worship in 
his own diocese, yet each grand division of 
the empire had very much the same liturgy. 
The canon of the Mass or the proper com- 
munion service, was indeed nearly the same 
in all countries ; while the Missa Catechume- 
norum, or the prayers and offices which pre- 
ceded the Mass, were widely different. 

Most of the earlier liturgies bore the names of certain 
Apostles, who, it was supposed, established those par- 
ticular forms of worship, in the countries where they 
labored, which were handed down orally till the fourth 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 73 

century, and then were committed to wTiting. The 
first written liturgy of Palestine and Sjn-ia, was called 
the Liturgy of St. James, who was accounted the first 
Bishop of Jerusalem. The Hturgy of Egypt and the 
adjacent countries, was named after St. Mark, the re- 
puted first Bishop of Alexandria. The old Liturgy of 
Italy and Rome, was ascribed to St. Peter, who, it was 
supposed, presided over the Romish See. Some also tell 
us of a Liturgy of the Apostle John, which was origi- 
nally used at Ephesus, and was thence carried to the 
Grecian colonies at Marseilles, Lyons, and Viemie, from 
whence it was propagated over Gaul, Britain, and perhaps 
Spain. But the Liturgy which prevailed in Asia Minor, 
Constantinople, and Greece, in the fifth and foUoA\'ing 
centuries, was the Liturgy of St. James, which is said to 
have been revised and improved by Basil of Cappadocia, 
and by Chrysostom. This same oriental Liturgy, in 
some or other of its recensions, is the basis of the modern 
Russian, the Melcliite and Jacobite Greek, the Armenian 
and JSTestorian Liturgies, and of one forni of the Coptic. 
The Romish Liturgy, or that of St. Peter, was revised in 
the fifth century by Leo the Great, and in the sixth by 
Gelasius and (Gregory the Great, the latter of whom in- 
troduced the Gregorian or plain chant. The succeeding 
Roman pontiffs enlarged and modified it, from time to 
time, and made great efforts to extend its use over all 
the countries subject to the papal authority ; and from 
about the eighth or ninth century, quite down to the 
Reformation, scarcely any other was used throughout 
papal Europe. The Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, in Great Britain and America, is based on this 
Romish Liturgy, but with very great alterations m\d 
7 



74 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

improvements, derived in part from the ancient Litur- 
gies, and in part from the lucubrations of the Reformers. 

There is another ancient Liturgy, in the eighth book of 
the spmious work called the Apostohc Constitutions, 
falsely ascribed to Clemens Romanus. But there is no 
reason to believe that it was ever adopted and used by 
any church whatever. It is therefore of no importance 
to our inquu'ies, except as casting some light on the ori- 
gin of written Liturgies. It is agreed among the learned, 
that this is one of the earliest, and perhaps the earliest 
\\Titten Liturgy of which we have any knowledge. It 
bears the marks of an Arian hand, and is supposed to 
have been produced some time in the fourth century ; — 
some think it may have been written near the end of the 
third century. 

The ablest waiters on Liturgies, both in the Romish 
Church and in the English Episcopal, have long been 
agreed, that the so called Apostolic Liturgies are not 
genuine, that neither the Apostles nor their assistants 
furnished the churches with written formulas of worship, 
and that written Liturgies were not known in the 
Christian church, till some time in the fourth century. 
The proofs they allege, are : (L) That if*the Apostles or 
Evangelists had supplied the churcbes with written 
Liturgies, those Liturgies would have been added to the 
canon of Holy Scripture, would have been preserved as 
carefully and with as little alteration as the Gospels or 
Epistles, and would have been as often cited and re- 
ferred to in the contests with heretics and schismatics. 
(2.) That, if the churches had possessed and used such 
Liturgies for 300 years, it is utterly unaccountable that 
no ecclesiastical writer should either mention, cite, or 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 75 

even allude to them, during that long period. (3.) That 
Basil the Great, about the year 374, (de Spiritu Sanc- 
to, c. 27. 0pp. T. Ill, p. .53, ed. Bened.) expressly de- 
clares, that no one of the holy men, up to l:ds time, had 
set forth any written formulas of prayer to be used in 
the celebration of the Euchai'ist : ra rrjs tTriKXfjc-eo^g 'prjjxa- 

ra, rtg tojv ayicov eyypd(po}g imiv KaTa\i\oi~ev. 

These arguments are deemed perfectly conclusive 
against written Liturgies, anterior to the fourth cen- 
tury. 

But, say the Romanists and the English Episcopa- 
lians, it is incredible that the Apostles should have giv- 
en no directions for public worship and for the adminis- 
tration of sacraments : or that the churches, for three 
centuries, could have maintained decorous worship, and 
a due administration of Christian ordinances, without 
Liturgies of some sort. We must therefore suppose, that 
they had formal Liturgies, which were handed down 
orally, till the fourth century, and then were committed 
to writing. And they did not write them so long as 
they were surrounded with Pagans, because they 
wished to conceal the mysteries of Christian worship 
from the knowledge of Pagans and Catechumens. The 
disagreements among the first written Liturgies, are also 
proof that they had come do^vn through an imperfect 
medium of transmission, like that of oral tradition. 

To these arguments it may be replied, That the Apos- 
tles did give ample directions for public worship, and 
for the administration of ordinances. Paul devoted to 
this subject three entire chapters in his first Epistle to 
the Corintliians, chapp. xi., xii. and xiv. But these direc- 
tions were wddely different from the complicated rites 



76 THE CHURCHES AFTER THE 

which make up the canon of the IVIass and the other 
offices in the oldest written Litui'gies. They described 
and recommended a mode of worship so simple and un- 
ceremonious, that the first Christians no more needed 
written formulas to guide them, than those churches now 
do, which, in obedience to the same directions, at this 
day, worship without a Liturgy. The supposition that the 
Apostles and early Chiistians refrained from using writ- 
ten Liturgies, lest the mysteries of their worship should 
become kno\^Ti to Pagans and Catechumens, is confu- 
ted by facts. Both Catechumens and Pagans, dming 
this whole period, were allowed and encouraged to at- 
tend the entire worship of Christians, except the Eu- 
charist and Baptisms. The whole antecommunion ser- 
vice, therefore, or the Missa Catechumenorum, could 
not have been left unwritten for the reason supposed. 
And as to the commmiion service, Paul gives a pretty 
full account of it ; and Justin Martyr, in the middle of 
the second century, had no scruples m publishing a mi- 
nute description of it, in his laigei Apology, addressed 
to a Pagan Emperor. (Apol. I, p. 97, 98, ed. Paris, 
1636.) If therefore any such concealment was ever 
practised, it must have been after the times of Justin 
Martyr, and have extended only to the Eucharistial and 
Baptismal services. (See Coleman's Chr. Antiqq. p. 35, 
36.) Yet the Missa Catechumenorum, equally with the 
Missa Fidelium, remained unwritten during tliis long 
period. The disagreements in the oldest written Litur- 
gies are no evidence of the long use of oral formulas ; 
for they have much more the appearance of having 
arisen from essentially different usages in different coun- 
tries, than from the faulty memories of those who were 



APOSTOLIC AGE. 77 

accustomed to repeat memoriter one and the same Lit- 
urgy. We will add, that it seems morally impossible 
that all the Christian ministers, for three hundred years, 
should have been able to repeat, without book, so long 
and complicated a ser\dce as the ancient Liturgies pre- 
scribe ; or indeed, any Liturgy founded on the same 
general model. If, then, the Early Christians had an 
oral Liturgy, which all the Clergy could commit to 
memory, it must have been a very different thing fi'om 
the subsequent written Liturgies ; and, of com'se, also 
from the Liturgies now used in the modem Greek, Ro- 
mish, and Anglican churches. 

That no Liturgies whatever, or no prescribed formu- 
las of worship, were in common use, in the Apostolic 
times, may be inferred from the fact that they are nev- 
er mentioned, or alluded to, in the New Testament. 
No Evangehst or minister is there charged to obey the 
canons, and never violate the rubric. No church is 
commended for its skill and scrupulousness, or censured 
for its ignorance and irreverence, in regard to the pre- 
scribed formulas of worship. Clmstians are exhorted to 
** pray without ceasing," and to " pray with all prayer 
and supphcation, in the Spirit ;'^ but are never directed 
to " say prayers,'' or to repeat the prescribed formulas of 
prayer. Paul, in describing the requisite quaUfications 
for a Bishop or Eider, never mentions a strong and well 
stored memory, or ability to repeat the prescribed ser- 
vice correctly. And Peter, directing men how to offi- 
ciate in sacred things, says : " If any Minister, let him 
do it as of the ability which God giveth,'- (1 Peter iv. 
11:) i. e. according to his best ability — not according to 
a prescribed ritual. If the Oorintliian church had been 
7* 



78 THE CHURCHES, &C. 

accustomed to use the canon of the Mass, they would 
not easily have fallen into such irregularities as are sta- 
ted : or if they did, Paul need not have written them a 
whole chapter (1 Cor. xi.) on the nature and the form 
of the Lord's Supper : he might have said, simply : 
Follow strictly the Liturgy, as I Paul taught you. So 
also, if their ordinary worship had been conducted by a 
priest, and in accordance with any such Liturgy as af- 
terwards prevailed, they would never have needed the 
instructions which Paul gives them, respecting spiritual 
gifts, especially that of tongues ; 1 Cor. xii. and xiv. 
Nor would he have reproved them, and given them such 
specific rules for their pubhc worship, as he does in 1 
Cor. xiv. 26-40. Indeed, it seems manifest, from the 
passage referred to, that all Christians, in that age, 
might speak and pray in the public assembHes ; and 
that all such performances were extemporaneous : they 
who then ministered, did so, literally and truly, as of the 
abihty which God gave them. (1 Peter iv. 11.) And 
the same mode of worship continued in the churches 
down to the times of Justin Martyr ; for he tells us, that 
the president of the assembled people then prayed 
{oar} cvvafHs) according to his ability. (Apol. I, p. 98, 
ed. Paris, 1636.) 



CHAPTER Y. 

CONSTITaTION OF THE COXGREGATIONAL 
CHURCHES. 

Q. 71. Are any modern churclies modeled 
exactly after the primitive pattern ? 

A. No. But the polity of the Congrega- 
tional churches corresponds in its general fea- 
tures with that of the Apostolic churches. 

Q. 72. What is the Congregational system 
of church polity ? 

A. It is that system of church order and 
discipline which was established in New 
England by the first English Colonists, and is 
now maintained by the great body of their de- 
scendants. 

The Congregational system of church government is 
also adopted by the churches of the CongTegational Un- 
ion of England and Wales, by the French Evangelical 
churches generally, by the Baptist churches in Great 
Britain and America, and by many churches called In- 



80 CONSTITUTIOX OF THE 

dependent or Congregational in various parts of the 
British Empire and of the United States. 

Q. 73. What was the origin of the Congre- 
gational churches of this country ? 

A. The" Congregational churches of New 
England were founded by certain ministers 
and Christians of Great Britain, who, in the 
early part of the 17th century, were driven by 
religious persecution to seek an asylum in this 
newly-discovered country. 

Q. 74. Was there anything peculiar in the 
origin of modern Congregationalism to favor 
the presumption that the system is nearly 
identical with that of the primitive churches ? 

A. Yes ; the Congregational system was 
entirely framed out of the Bible by men learned 
in the Scriptures, who believed that Christ and 
his Apostles had there prescribed a complete 
ecclesiastical system of absolute authority. 

Such men as John Robinson, John Owen, Thomas 
Hooker, and all the early writers in favor of Congrega- 
tionalism, went to the Bible to learn how the church 
was originally constituted, with a strong sense of obli- 
gation to ascertai'i and scrupulously follow the primi- 
tive pattern. This explains the fact that the first 
churches of New England submitted to the expense 
and inconvenience of maintaining two ministers instead 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 81 

of one — Shaving discoTered, as they supposed, that every 
local church in primitive times had hoth ruling and 
teaching Elders. And this presents very strong pre- 
sumptive evidence that the system adopted by them is 
closely conformed to that m the New Testament. No 
other ecclesiastical system has this presumption in 
its favor. The oldest systems, as the diocesan Episcopal, 
are known to have departed widely from the primitive 
pattern, and in modem times they have not been 
modified with a view to confonn them to that model. 
The Wesleyan Episcopal Church was not even profess- 
edly built on a careful examination and copying of the 
ApostoHc churches. 

Q. 75. What are the sources of information 
respecting the polity of the Congregational 
churches ? 

A. The Platforms, standard authors, and 
especially the practice of those churches. 

Q. 76. Have the Congregational churches 
any Platforms or Constitutions, according to 
which they are bound to regulate all their pro- 
ceedings ? 

A. No. Platforms hare been at various 
times drawn up by Congi'egational bodies ; 
but the churches of the present day do not 
feel bound rigidly to follow them. They of- 
ten refer to them with respect, as embody- 
ing the wisdom of their predecessors ; but 



82 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

they are governed in their own practice gen- 
erally by usage, and in some districts by par- 
ticular Constitutions. 

See " Platform of Church DiscipUne, gathered out of 
the Word of God, and agreed upon by the Elders and 
Messengers of the churches assembled in the Synod at 
Cambridge, in New England, Anno. 1648:" and "The 
Heads of Agreement assented to by the United Minis- 
ters, formerly called Presbyterian and Congregational ; 
and also Articles for the administration of church Dis- 
cipline, unanimously agreed upon by the Elders and 
Messengers of the churches in the Colony of Connecti- 
cut, in New England, assembled by delegation, at Say- 
brook, Sept. 9th, 1708." See also the " Digest of Rules 
and Usages in the Consociations and Associations of 
Connecticut,'"' contained in the " Congregational Order." 

''Mather's Ratio Disciplinge," and •'' Mather's Power 
of the Ke3'^s," were generally referred to as guides, before 
the adoption of the Cambridge Platform. Several mod- 
ern writers have published treatises, more or less full, up- 
on the Congregational system. " See Upham's Ratio Dis- 
cipline" — " Punchard's View of Congregationalism" — 
" Bacon's Manual," and " Mitchell's Guide to Church 
Members." 

Q. 77. Do Congregationalists hold that 
their system exists by divine right in such a 
sense that there can be no true church under 
any other form ? 

A. No. They generally hold that devia- 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 83 

tions from the primith^e model are lawful, un- 
less they are contrary to some plain precept 
or principle of Christianity. See Ques. 7. 

We may mention as examples of a lawful departure 
from primitive practice, the discontinuance of a plurali- 
ty of Elders in individual clim'ches, of deaconesses, 
and of the weekly administration of the Lord's Supper ; 
and as examples of the opposite character, the neglect 
of Christian ordinances by the Friends, and the usurpa- 
tion of church power, not properly belonging to them, 
by the clergy of most sects. This latter class of devia- 
tions from the primitive model, Congregationalists look 
upon as serious irregularities, but do not suppose them 
to be incompatible with the heivg of a church. They 
regard as a Christian church any body of credible be- 
lievers in Christ, united by voluntary confederation for 
the purpose of ser™g God in a church capacity, ac- 
cording to their best understanding of the Scriptures ; 
even if, by misapprehending the mind of Christ, they do 
not order every thing in the best manner. These liberal 
viewSj however, should not make Congregationalists in- 
different to the maintenance and extension of that sys- 
tem of church order and disciphne which complies with 
all the laws of Christ's house. See Ques. 11. 

Q. 78. What distinguishing points of cor- 
respondence between Congregationalism and 
the primitive system of church order and dis- 
cipline, can you mention ? 

A. According to Congregationalism, a reg- 



84 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

ular Cliristian church is a voluntary associa- 
tion of professed believers in Jesus Christ, 
united together for the social worship of God, 
and for the administration of religious ordi- 
nances. See Ques. 2, 14, 23, 28. 

Q. 79. In what sense is a Congregational 
church a voluntary association ? 

A. A Congregational church is not a volun- 
tary association in the sense of being a mere 
human institution, Vv^ith which believers in 
Christ are under no kind of obligation to con- 
nect themselves. All Christians, or regener- 
ate persons, are justly expected to confess 
Christ before men, by becoming members of 
some branch of his visible church. But the 
association is voluntary in this respect, that it 
■was formed by a free act of confederation on 
the part of individuals, and not by the author- 
ity of any court, civil or ecclesiastical. See 
Cambridge Platform, ch. iv, sec. 6. 

Q. 80. Does Congregationalism recognize 
the right of any number of persons of suitable 
qualifications to organize themselves into a 
Christian church ? 

A. The right is unquestionable ; but the 
expediency of the step depends on the ques- 
tion, whether the ori^anization of those indi- 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 85 

viduals into a church is desirable for their per- 
sonal edification, and the glory of God. But 
Congregationalists invariably recognize a body 
of believers in Christ, voluntarily united by 
covenant in a church capacity as a true 
church. 

Q. Si. Must a Congregational church have 
officers ? 

A. A Congregational church may exist or 
have essential being without officers ; but can- 
not be complete in Jorm, or fully organized 
without them. See Ques. 8, 15. 

Q. 82. What are the pov/ers of a Congrega- 
tional church ? 

A. A Congregational church is a demo- 
cracy. All the members are equal, and all its 
affairs are definitively determined by a major 
vote of the brotherhood. They elect their 
own officers, admit, govern, and expel their 
own members, and do all other things which, 
according to the laws of Christ, may of right 
be done in and over his church. 

Q. 83. Is a CongTegational church an inde- 
pendent body ? 

A. A Congregational church is independent, 
because no other church or ecclesiastical 
body has power to reverse its decisions. It 



86 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

has no other head than Jesus Christ, and is 
subject to his authority alone. Hence, in 
Great Britain, the churches embraced in the 
Congregational Union of England and Wales, 
are commonly called independent churches. 

A Congregational church, however, is sub- 
ject to the admonition of sister churches for 
heresy, lax discipline, or any scandalous of- 
fense, and if incorrigible, to a withdrawal of 
church fellowship. See Upham's Ratio Dis- 
ciplinae, Ch. II, sec. 20. 

Q. 84. What qualification is required for 
membership in a Congregational church ? 

A. Credible piety. See Cambridge Plat- 
form, Ch. Ill, sees. 1, 2. 

Q. 85. By what process is a Congregational 
church formed ? 

A. Whenever several persons, after taking 
the private advice of some neighboring minis- 
ters and Christians, desire to be formed into a 
church, they invite a number of ministers, or 
a council, to assemble and aid them in their 
organization. The council thus assembled 
inspect the proceedings of those who have 
called them together ; and being satisfied that 
it is right and suitable to proceed, the council 
lead them to combine themselves by solemn 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 87 

VOWS into a church — accompanied by appro- 
priate religious services and ceremonies. See 
Upham's Ratio Disciplinae, Ch. III. 

Q. 86. What are the officers of a Congre- 
gational church ? 

A. The officers of a Congregational church 
are of two orders only — Elders and Deacons. 
The Elder or minister is the preacher or public 
teacher of the people, and the Chief Execu- 
tive officer or ruler of the church. The Dea- 
con or Deacons, for there may be two or more, 
have charge of the temporalities of the church 
and the care of the poor, and they assist the 
minister in administering the ordinances of the 
Gospel. See Bacon's Manual. 

Q. 87. Are Congregational ministers known 
by any other titles ? 

A. Yes. They are called the pastors and 
bishops of their respective churches. See 
Ques. 44. 

Q. 88. In what manner are men raised to 
the pastoral office in Congregational churches ? 

A. By the free election of the brethren, and 
a solemn induction into office. 

The brethren of the church having first fixed their 
eyes upon a candidate for the pastoral office over them, 
and sought the divine guidance in a matter of so great 



^ 



88 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

importance, by fasting and prayer, make the election — 
and if the ecclesiastical society concurs in their choice, 
and the pastor elect accepts the appointment, a comicil 
of neighboring churches is called, by whose aid he is 
ordained or solemnly iuducted into office. See Upham's 
Ratio Discipline, Ch. III. 

Q. 89. May a church elect any person 
whom it deems of suitable character, learning, 
and talents, to the pastoral office over them ? 

A. A church has this right inherently, but 
by tacit consent, for the sake of guarding 
against an incompetent ministry, the churches 
do not elect any to the pastoral office, or hear 
any preach as candidates, except such as have 
been first approved and licensed to preach by 
some Association of ministers or pastors, 
connected with the churches in their commun- 
ion. The Baptist churches, which are Con- 
gregational, do not, we believe, take this pre- 
caution, but receive preachers as candidates 
for the ministry on the recommendation of the 
churches to which they belong. See Say- 
brook Platform, Part II, sec. YII. New 
Englander, Yol. II, Art. Baptist Polity. 

Q. 90. May a person be constituted a min- 
ister of the Gospel without being elected to 
the pastoral office over a particular church ? 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 89 

A. Yes. For, although no one can be made 
the pastor of a particular church, without the 
vote of said church, a person may be ordained 
to preach the Gospel, and gather churches in 
destitute places, to labor as an evangelist 
among feeble churches, or as a missionary 
among the unevangelized. Compare ques- 
tions 36 and 43. 

Q. 91. In whom is the power of appointing 
and ordaining missionaries vested ? 

A. The churches or missionary associations 
which send them forth, make the appointment ; 
the ordination service is performed by coun- 
cils convened for the purpose. 

Q. 92, Is it agreeable to Congregational 
usage for everybody of ministers of the Gospel 
to ordain others to the work of the Christian 
mini-stry ? 

A. No. The work of ordaining ministers of 
the Gospel is restricted to standing or special 
councils, composed of pastors and delegates 
of churches, called together for the purpose by 
the candidate for ordination, and by those 
who invite him to be their pastor or missiona- 
ry. See Upham's Ratio Disciplinae, Ch. YII, 
sec. 91 ; Ch. YIII, sec. 92. 



90 CONSTITUTION OF THE 

Q. 93. What is the process of church disci- 
pline in the Congregational churches ? 

A. It is precisely that laid down in ]\Iatt. 
ch. xviih 

In relation to open, well known, and flagrant sins, 
some infer a more summary process is proper, from the 
com'se which they suppose Paul urges the church of 
Corinth to adopt in the case of the incestuous man. 1 
Cor. V. ch. And this is agreeable to usage in most 
Congregational churches. Yet it does not appear that 
Paul censures that chmch, solely for not proceeding 
to excommunication, or that he authorizes them to take 
the last step, without taking the first. He may per- 
haps have known that the fii'st steps had been taken 
without reclaiming the offender : and if this was the 
case, the apostle merely censured the church for neg- 
lecting to carry out the process of discipline by a final 
act of excommunication. See Upham's Ratio Disci- 
pline, sec. 96, and Bacon's Manual, p. 101. 

In the case of a pastor, the course of procedure is not 
uniform. In most consociated churches, a complamt 
against a pastor camiot be brought except tlu'ougfh the 
associated pastors of the district to which the church 
belongs, by whom, if they see fit, the complaint is car- 
ried before the consociation for trial and final determina- 
tion. See Congregational Order, pp. 295-98. In 
churches, not consociated, the course is, for the church 
to refer the matter either for advice or final determina- 
tion to a councd of neighboring churches. See Upham's 
Ratio Disciplinae, sees. 136, 37, 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 91 

The simple deposition of a pastor or evangelist from 
the ministry, does not dissolve his church relations. 
After his deposition, the church to which he belongs 
may proceed against him, as in the case of any other 
member. See Upham, sec. 140, 

Q. 94. Is there any appeal in a case of 
discipline from the decision of the church 1 

A. The decision is final unless the church 
consents to refer the matter to a mutual coun- 
cil for advisement before the final decision. 

An aggrieved member may, however, ask for 
a mutual council, and if that is denied by the 
church, he may call an exparte council to re- 
examine his case, and to advise the church to 
recall its censure, if it appears to the council 
to be unjust. 

The decision of a council is considered merely 
advisory ; and as such may be either accepted or 
not accepted by the church, yet the moral influence of 
councils is so great, that the churches are seldom kno^vn 
to disregard their advice. And indeed it would be 
thought disrespectful to a council, and a breach of Christ- 
ian fellowship, if a church should refuse to accept its ad- 
vice in matters merely prudential. See Upham's Ratio 
Disciplinae, Ch. XIV., sees. 182-3. 

Many Congregational churches, particularly in Con- 
necticut, are consociated, as it is called ; that is, they 
have constituted themselves into standing mutual coun- 



92 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 

cils, one or more in a county, consisting of the several 
pastors, with a lay delegate from each chm^ch. To 
these bodies the churches represented in. them, have 
agreed, in advance, to submit their difficulties : and the 
result or decision of the council is in all cases to be a 
final issue. See Congregational Order, p. 300. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONGREGATIONALISM PREFERABLE TO OTHER 
SYSTEMS OF CHURCH POLITY. 

Q. 95. What other Ecclesiastical systems 
have been adopted by modern churches ? 

A. The most important are the Episcopa- 
lian and the Presbyterian. 

Q. 96. Why should Congregationalism be 
preferred to these systems ? 

A. Congregationalism deserves this prefer- 
ence, because it appears to be the only system 
in existence that complies fully with the spirit 
and precepts of Christianity. 

Q. 97. To what inspired rule or principle 
does Congregationalism conform, which other 
systems disregard? 

A. Congregationahsm leaves in the hands of 
the brotherhood the discipline of the church, 
of which the other ecclesiastical systems di- 
vest them. 



94 PREFERABLENESS OF 

Q. 98. Is this a sufficient reason for prefer- 
ring Congregationalism ? 

A. Why is it not ? Are we not commanded 
by Christ, if a brother trespass against us, to 
take certain steps to gain him, and if these fail, 
to '^ tell it to the church'^ ? And have we then 
a right to prefer a constitution of the church 
which refers these matters to a very different 
tribunal ? 

Q. 99. Is this the only point in which Con- 
gregationalism alone complies with the rules of 
the Gospel 1 

A. No. The denial by other sects of the 
fundamental principle of the primitive church, 
that all ecclesiastical power is vested in the 
hands of the brotherhood of each particular 
church, or that such a society is a complete 
church in itself, independent of all foreign con- 
trol, carries with it many and wide departures 
from the rules which Christ has given for the 
right ordering of His church. The several lo- 
cal churches, for example, are constituted by 
Christ their own guardians. They are not 
only to judge of the qualifications of all who 
enjoy their communion, to admit and exclude 
persons as members, but to see to the charac- 
ter and doctrine of their teachers, and to keep 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 95 

alive a spirit of piety by the mutual watch and 
exhortations of the members : in one word, 
they are respectively charged with the duties of 
self-government, of self-culture, and of self-pro- 
tection. These import^ant trusts are taken from 
the churches by other ecclesiastical systems, 
wholly or in part, and committed to the hands 
of the clergy. 

Q. 100. Is not this an objection which lies 
also against Congregationalism ; that is, are 
there not some rules of order prescribed by 
Christ, to which this system does not conform ? 

A. I have no knowledge of any such rule. 
Congregationalism is not an exact copy of the 
primitive church ; but it deviates from that orig- 
inal form in none of those particulars which are 
based upon the nature of things, or upon pre- 
cepts of permanent obligation. 

The most material deviations respect the number of 
Elders in each particular church, the office of Deaconess, 
and the Love Feasts ; but these regulations were not 
founded in the nature of things, or in any permanent 
necessity, nor were they estabHshed by any positive en- 
actment of Christ. The comiciL of elders in each church 
was no doubt at first adopted in unitation of the form of 
government which existed hi the Jewish synagogues. 
(See Neander, vol. i, p. 186, and Ques. 33.) There is 
no scriptural injunction requiring such a board to be 



96 PREFERABLENESS OF 

maintained in the church ; and as every object of church 
rule and edification is secured as well or better by having 
a single elder, the Congregational practice is abundantly 
justified. It should also be remembered, that Congrega- 
tionahsm admits of a plurahty of elders. Churches are 
not unfrequently furnished with two colleague pastors, 
and sometimes with a greater number. In respect to 
deaconesses, as the office had its origin in the pecufiar 
customs of the East, it is properly discontinued among 
us. Even there it was not enjoined on the churches, but 
was adopted as a means of introducing the gospel into 
the private apartments of the women. The case is dif- 
ferent with those ecclesiastical systems which divest the 
church, or particular congregation of befievers'of church 
rule. By doing this, they take from the church the power 
of obeying the express commands of Christ ; those, for 
instance, relating to the admission, government, and ex- 
pulsion of members. The investiture of the church with 
all church power seems to be founded in the nature of 
tilings. For who can care for the church like the church 
itself; or who is so competent to manage wisely all its 
affairs ? If the business is taken from the brotherhood 
and placed in other hands, it changes radically for the 
worse, the whole system of church government. 

Q. 101. Is it evident that the Congregational 
system is better in practice than other systems ? 
Although they may be less scriptural, is it clear 
that they are less adapted to this age of the 
world ? 

A. There is certainly a presumption in favor 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 97 

of the scriptural system ; and the stronger pre- 
sumption because it was democratical, a kind 
of government which is best suited to the most 
intelligent communities ; and of course better 
suited to this age and country than to the age 
of the apostles. If all church power was 
vested in the church in primitive times, it is 
too late to question the wisdom of continuing 
the power in the same hands, in this enlight- 
ened age. 

Q. 102. But is it not true, that the Episcopal 
and Presbyterian systems of church polity are 
found in practice to be highly conducive to the 
peace and purity of the churches under them ? 

A. There is. I believe, much sincere piety 
and fraternal harmony in those communions. 
The systems of government are no doubt ad- 
ministered with much impartiality and wisdom. 
And wherever the gospel is preached in purity, 
the peculiar excellence of Christianity will 
shine forth in the lives of many of the hearers. 
The truth is, we are not to look for all imagin- 
able evils to follow a faulty system of church 
order, any more than we are to suppose that a 
people cannot be happy and prosperous under 
a monarchy. Nevertheless, Congregationalism 
appears to me to have the best tendencies. 
9 



98 PREFERABLENESS OF 

Q. 103. What good tendencies do you see in 
Congregationalism on account of which it is to 
be preferred to other ecclesiastical systems ? 

A. It seems to exert a happier influence on 
individual piety, usefulness, and intelligence ; to 
afford the strongest safeguards against corrup- 
tion in the body of the church, and to be more 
propitious in its influence on civil society and 
the world. 

Q. 104c What proof is there of the peculiar 
tendency of Congregationalism to promote in- 
dividual excellence and usefulness ? 

A. Congregationalism impresses the minds 
of individuals with a sense of responsibility, 
and calls into exercise their best powers, as 
judges of all matters of doctrine and practice 
in the church. 

It treats the individual as a man. capable of self-gov- 
ernment. By respecting him, it inspires him with self- 
respect ; by imposing responsibilities on him, it qualifies 
him to bear them. The adage that " circumstances 
make the man," has all its force in relation to him. He 
looks, or at least is moved to look into all questions of 
doctrine, of Christian experience, and of ecclesiastical 
order, not for his own sake merely, but that he may do 
his duty as one of the governors of Christ's church. 

Congregationalism also calls forth aU the energies of 
the individual in the work of benevolence. As a mem- 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 99 

ber of the church he considers it his duty to promote the 
spiritual good of others to the extent of his ability, hy im- 
proving his gifts of prayer, of exhortation, and of counsel. 
He is not trammeled by fear of doing something for 
Christ too holy to be done by a layman, but does as a 
duty whatever good he is qualified to do. He devises 
new plans of usefulness, which he is in no way hindered 
by ecclesiastical lawgivers from carr3ring into execution. 
He keeps up with the age in his knowledge of theological 
truth. He is not restrained by the imposition of a creed, 
jframed in less enlightened times, from. proving all things 
and holding fast that which is good. He is constantly 
inquirhig, praying, studying for a purer faith as well as a 
purer heart. This freedom of action, freedom of inquiry, 
and sense of responsibility, it cannot be denied, distin- 
guish the Congregational churches. In the same degree 
in which other communions are less distmguished by 
these spurs of intellect, and facihties of mdividual useful- 
ness, has Congregationahsm the preeminence. (See 
Punchard's View of Congregationahsm, pp. 172-175. 

Q. 105. What peculiar safeguards to the pu- 
rity of the church does Congregationalism 
afford ? 

A. The fundamental principle of Congrega- 
tionalism, that none but regenerated persons 
may properly be admitted to membership in 
the church, taken in connection with the fact, 
that no person can be admitted except by vote 
of the brotherhood, after an examination by the 



100 PREFERABLENESS OF 

whole church or a committee appointed for the 
purpose, is the strongest possible barrier to the 
admission of unworthy members. When the 
doors of a church are vigilantly guarded by 
all the members, it is a ground of assurance that 
its spiritual life and vigor will be preserved. 
This assurance is strengthened by committing 
to the church the care and discipline of the 
members. It is unquestionably true, that these 
duties may be well discharged by a board of 
elders or a single clergyman ; and much better 
discharged than is sometimes done by a Con- 
gregational church. But the question is, to 
which is the purity of the church most safely 
intrusted. To the church itself, I have no 
doubt. Whoever has consulted history, or is 
acquainted with human nature, must know that 
ambition, timidity, favoritism, are more apt to 
pervert the action of church officers than of the 
church itself. But the most important consid- 
eration belonging to this subject, is, that Con- 
gregationalism is much more favorable to the 
work of reform, than its rival systems. When 
the church has become corrupt, how shall piety 
and doctrinal purity be restored to it ; or how 
shall true religion be revived in the community ? 
According to Congregationalism, the piety 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 101 

which remains may then secede and reorganize 
itself in a new church : or if no spiritual life 
remains, if all the members have become apos- 
tate from the true faith, then on the reappear- 
ance of piety in any number of individuals, they 
may be immediately organized into a neAv church. 
Every congregation of believers associated for 
church purposes, is a complete church, invested 
wdth all the powers which are necessary to at- 
tain its end, and may come into existence, ac- 
cording to the Congregational system, without 
the concurrence of a bishop or presbytery. 
But not so with those systems which see in 
particular churches only the parts of a national 
or provincial church, and hold all their pro- 
ceedings subject to revision by powers without 
and above them. Revivals of piety and at- 
tempts at reform are liable to be suppressed in 
their very beginnings, by such ecclesiastical 
courts. See 8th chapter of Bacon's Manual ; 
also Punchard's View of Congregationalism, 
pp. 176-182. 

Q. 106. What evidence is there that the in- 
fluence of Congregationalism on civil society'' is 
peculiarly propitious ? 

A . There is an obvious tendency in a popular 
form of ecclesiastical government, both to sug- 
9* 



102 PREFERABLENESS OF 

gest to the minds of men a popular cml goyem= 
ment, and to qualify a people for self-govern- 
ment. This tendency is the parent of our own 
free civil institutions. See Punchard's Yiew 
of Congregationalism, pp, 169-172. 

Q. 107. How is Congregationalism likely to 
confer greater benefits on the world than other 
ecclesiastical systems ? 

A. The way is obvious, if we consider a mo- 
ment the tendency of Congregational Chrstian- 
ity to subvert both civil and ecclesiastical des- 
potisms, the two grand obstacles to the progress 
of society in religion and general happiness^ 
Wherever this form of Christianity goes, it must 
carry with it that free spirit^ intelligence, and 
capacity for self-government, which will gradu- 
ally liberalize, if it does not wholly change. 
the constitutions and laws of nations. And as 
to ecclesiastical despotisms, Congregationalism 
supersedes them wherever it gains possession 
of the soil. 

Wliether tiiis is a blessing to the world or not will in- 
deed be differently decided by mankind according to their 
opposite views of the practical influence of the Iiierar- 
chies of Christendom. Some ^vlH justly consider these hie- 
rarchies as so many obstacles to the progress of trath ; 
incumbrances to Christianity; burdens on the church. 



CONCtREGATIOXALISM- 1 03 

They load the people with taxes to support their higher 
clergy in a state of grandeur and luxury that ill accords 
with the spirit of the gospel. They frown on all reforms. 
Change, progress, improvement, are to them only omens 
of their own downfall. How different would be the pros- 
pects of Protestant Christianity within the boundaries of 
the Papal and Greek churches, if those hierarchies were 
destroyed, and aU the particular congregations of Chris- 
tiajis organized on the Congregational plan I How 
would the spirit of piety, of mteUigence, of general im- 
provement, revive in all those countries ! "WTiat new 
success would crown the efforts of Protestant Mission- 
aries to restore the corrupt chm'ches of the old world to 
evangehcal purity I 

Q. 108. What other peculiar excellence do 
you perceive in Congregationalism ? 

A. The Congregational mode of discipline is 
more effective than any other. This is owing 
in part to the fact that " the punishment which 
is inflicted of many," carries with it the weight 
of public opinion. Compare the effect of Con- 
gregational discipline with that of some other 
churches. How slight a sense of shame and 
alarm is felt by an Episcopalian or a JMethodist 
on being excluded from the church by the sole 
act of the minister in charge ! It is a very 
trivial affair in comparison with the proceedings 
of a CongTegational church, according to the 
rules in Matt, xviii ; and produces on the sub- 



104 PREFERABLENESS OF 

ject of discipline and the community at large, a 
very different and inferior impression. But this 
is not the sole excellence of the Conorrecrational 
method of discipline. Discipline is well de- 
scribed (Mitchell's Guide^ p. 62) as another and 
a tetter thing in the hands of the church than 
it is in merely official hands. The aid of the 
brethren is of great use in reclaiming offenders. 
It is the very influence which Christ has pre- 
scribed to be employed, and by far the most 
likely to effect its object. 

Q. 109. But is it not all edged as a practical 
objection to Congregationalism, that it has no 
public Confession of Faith by which to secure 
uniformity of views and guard the purity of the 
churches ? 

A. This objection is doubtless of great weight 
with those who are accustomed to depend on 
such Formularies of Doctrine and Discipline 
for safety, but it has in fact no weight what- 
ever. For— 

1. The Bible is the standard of the Congre- 
gational churches. They have each a particu- 
lar Confession, and commonly a few simple ar- 
ticles of practice, drawn up for the sake of 
convenience, although they do not appeal to 
these formularies as '* standards" of faith and 



CONGREGATIONALISM. 105 

practice. In this they are sustained by the 
Bible, for that " declares its own authority and 
sufficiency, and requires a direct reference to 
itself on all questions of a religious or moral 
nature." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17 ; John v. 39 ; Matt, 
xxii. 29. 

2. In this respect the Congregational church- 
es conform to the primitive model. The first 
Christians had no standard or test of truth but 
the Bible. See Mitchell's Guide, p. 50. Com- 
pare Ques. 30. , 

3. Notwithstanding Congregationalists hav^ 
no other authoritative rule of faith or practice 
than the word of God, their sentiments are un- 
commonly well defined, well known, and har- 
monious. (Mitchell, p. 51.) What the Con- 
gregational Union of England and Wales say 
respecting the denomination in that country, is 
equally true of the churches in the United 
States. " They wish it to be observed, (they 
say,) that notwithstanding their jealousy oi sub- 
scription to Creeds and Articles, and their gen- 
eral disapproval of the imposition of any human 
standard, they are far more agreed in their doc- 
trines and practices than any church which 
enjoins subscription and enforces a human 
standard of orthodoxy.'' 



106 PREFERABLENESS, &C. 

4. The effect of these human standards is 
prorerbially the opposite of what it is intended 
to be. They do not accomplish their object 
either as defenses against heresy or as bonds 
of union and concord. Mitchell's Guide, pp. 
53-56. 



CHAPTER YII, 

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Q. 110. What was the origin of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church in this country ? 

A. The early clergymen of this denomina- 
tion were missionaries from the established 
church of England. Their parishes were in- 
cluded in the diocese of London, previous to 
the American Revolution. 

Q. 111. What was the origin of the estab- 
lished church of England ? 

A. It is the ancient church of England as it 
was reformed and organized by the court and 
bishops in the reigns of Henry the YIII, Ed- 
ward the YI, and Queen Elizabeth. 

Q. 112. How does the Protestant Episco- 
pal church in the United States differ from the 
church of England ? 

A. The church of England is connected 
with the State as a national establishment, and 



108 THE PROTESTAXT. 

has various officers, as x\rchbishops, Archdea- 
cons, Deans, Prebendaries, Canons, Minor 
Canons, Chancellors, Vicars-general, Com- 
missaries, Officials, SmTOgates, Proctors, 
&c., which are not known in this country. 
The monarch of England is the supreme head 
of the church, with power to nominate the 
Bishops, reverse votes of Parliament, and stop 
the proceedings of the clergy. 

Q. 113. Wherein does the Constitution of 
this church, in the United States, differ from 
that of the primitive churches, as described in 
the New Testament ? 

A. The Protestant Episcopal church is in- 
/ capable of being assembled in one place, that 

the members may give their vote in ecclesias- 
tical affairs ; and the several congregations of 
which it is composed are all obliged to an 
absolute uniformity of faith, worship, and dis- 
cipline. They are not so many distinct 
churches, but together constitute one national 
church. 

Q. 114. How many orders of ministers are 
there in the Protestant Episcopal church ? 

A. Three : Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. 

Q. 115. What is the office and authority of 
the Bishops ? 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 109 

A. They have the sole power of ordaining 
the clerg}'', of consecrating churches, and of 
administering the right of confirmation. They 
also have great authority over the inferior 
clergy. 

Q. 116. What have you to object to the su- 
periority of the Bishops over the parochial 
clergy ? 

A. No such distinction of ministers is ap- 
pointed by Christ in his church, but on the con- 
trary lie has expressly forbidden them to as- 
sume dominion over one another. See Matt. 
XX. 25-27, xxiii. 8. 

Q. 117. What is there objectionable in the 
manner of ordination by Bishops ? 

A. They require all whom they ordain, to 
declare that they are moved by the Holy 
Ghost, in undertaking the ministerial office ; 
and then pretend to confer the Spirit by the 
imposition of their hands, saying, " Receive 
the Holy Ghost," &c. 

Q. 1 18. Can none officiate as ministers in the 
Protestant Episcopal church, who have not re- 
ceived Episcopal ordination ? 

A. No ; all other ordination is pronounced 
invalid. Even ordination by ^lethodist Bish- 
ops is considered insufficient, because it has 
10 



110 THE PROTESTANT 

no higher authority than Presbyterian ordina- 
tion, the first Methodist Bishop having been 
consecrated by a presbyter, John Wesley. 

Q. 119. What is the common argument for 
the exclusive right of the Bishops to ordain ? 

A. That they have derived the right by un- 
interrupted succession from the Apostles. 

Q. 120. What is objected to this right by 
uninterrupted succession ? 

A. There are several objections * 

1. The Scriptures nowhere menti(*i it as 
necessary to render ordination valid. 

2. There is no reason why it should be ne- 
cessary. What good purpose would be an- 
swered, if instead of tracing their ordination to 
Mr. Wesley, the clergy of the Methodist de- 
nomination could trace it back to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury ? Would it give them 
any new ideas ? Would it make them more 
able or more devoted ministers of the New 
Testament ? Would it add to the force of 
their preaching, or to the sanctifying influence 
of Christian ordinances administered by their 
hands ? Certainly not. What good purpose 
then could it answer ? Was this doctrine of 
succession an expedient of the Apostles to pre- 
serve the external unity of the church, or, as 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



Ill 



it is said, to prevent schism or secession from 
the Catholic church ? This is the use to which 
it is now attempted to put it ; and strange as it 
may seem, Episcopalians cling to it as a 
" principle" which is ultimately to reunite the 
scattered fragments of the universal church. 
That state of things w^hich they hope to see, 
viz: all Christians combined in one denomi- 
nation, if it shall ever come to pass, is not to 
be effected by such a miserable device. The 
expedient, if it was apostolical, has accom- 
plished nothing ; for we see the churches of 
Rome and of Constantinople early divided, and 
subsequently, the church of England separa- 
ting from that of Rome, besides a multitude of 
other divisions in every age of the church. 
And it is remarkable, if this doctrine is apos- 
tolical, that the greatest evils the kingdom of 
Christ ever suffered, have been produced by 
the efforts of its adherents to secure this unity 
and uniformity. Why, moreover, if the Apos- 
tles established this law of succession for the 
sake of unity, did they not record so important 
a fact ? The truth is, they never did establish 
it ; for nothing would tend so directly and 
powerfully to build up a spiritual despotism in 



112 THE PROTESTANT 

the churches of Christ ; and to perpetuate the 
worst corruptions that might infest them. 

3. The Protestant Episcopal church cannot 
prove that her ministry is derived by a regu- 
lar succession of ordinations from the Apos- 
tles. 

This is admitted by the best scholars in her 
own communion. See Archbishop Whateley, 
in his late learned work on the Kingdom of 
Christ, Essay II, sec. 30. 

Q. 121. What is the highest authority in 
the Protestant Episcopal church in this coun- 
try, where there are no archbishops ? 

A. The sovereignty resides in the individ- 
ual diocesan churches, each of which forms 
its own constitution, frames canons for internal 
government, and decides on all cases of disci- 
pline, except that the Bishop must be approved, 
ordained, and, when impeached, tried by his 
peers, that is, by other Bishops. But all gen- 
eral matters relating to the whole church are 
regulated by a triennial Convention, which 
frames canons, regulates the Liturgy and offi- 
ces of worship, decides on the formation of 
new dioceses, appoints missionary Bishops, 
and holds correspondence with foreign bodies. 
This Convention has also the power of alter- 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 113 

ing or amending its own constitution, by pub- 
lishing the proposed alteration at one triennial 
meeting, and adopting them at a subsequent 
meeting. It is composed of all the Bishops, 
who form an upper house : and of clerical and 
lay delegates from the several dioceses, who 
form a lower house ; and the concurrence of 
both houses is requisite to the validity of its 
acts. See Constitution of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church in the United States of Amer- 
ica. 

Q. 122. What is the nature and design of 
the rite of confirmation as performed by the 
Bishops ? 

A. It is designed for young persons, who 
thereby take upon themselves the vows which 
their sponsors made in their names at their 
baptism. 

Q. 123. What does the Bishop do on these 
occasions ? 

A. He thanks God for having regenerated 
them by water and the Holy Ghost, and for- 
given all their sins. He then lays his hands 
upon the head of every person to certify them 
all, by that sign, of God's favor and gracious 
goodness towards them. 
10* 



114 THE PROTESTANT 

Q. 124. What is required of persons in or- 
der to their being thus confirmed ? 

A. Nothing more than their having a cer- 
tificate from their minister, that they can say 
the Lord's prayer, the creed, the ten com- 
mandments, and the catechism ; and their an- 
swering all togetlier to the question, " Whether 
they renew the vows made in their name at 
their baptism ?" 

Q. 125. W^hat objection is there to this 
ceremony ? 

A. It has no foundation in Scripture, and is 
attended with very dangerous consequences. 

The piiiicipal text urged in favor of confimiation is 
nothing to the purpose, viz : Acts viii. 14, &:c., which 
refers to the extraordinary gifts conferred by Peter and 
John. The confirmation spoken of, Acts xiv. 22, and 
XV. 41, was not by imposition of hands, but by preach' 
ing. 

Q. 126. W^hat dangerous consequence is 
likely to arise from this rite ? 

A. Ignorant people who have too good an 
opinion of the Bishop to think he would de- 
clare a falsehood, are likely to look upon them- 
selves to be what he has declared they are, 
pardoned, regenerated, and interested in God's 



EPISCOPAL CHVPvCH. 115 

favor, and so conclude their state is safe, 
while yet they continue in their sins. 



MODE OF WORSHIP. 

Q. 127. What is the mode of worship in 
the Protestant Episcopal church ? 

A. A form of prayer is statedly used, called 
the Liturg}^ or Common Prayer. 

Q. 128. Are forms of prayer in themselves 
sinful ? 

A. No : it is better to pray by a form than 
not at all, or in an indecent, incoherent man- 
ner. 

Q. 129. What objections then are there to 
Liturgies ? 

A. 1. The Scripture is silent respecting the 
necessity or expediency of them, and refers to 
none in use, though it treats largely on divine 
worship, and mentions the prayers of good men, 
on various occasions. See Ques. 70. 

2. It seems unreasonable that Christian 
ministers should be confined to an invariable 
form in their prayers, more than in their ser- 
mons. 

3. The influence of sympathy between the 
minister and his hearers is in a great measure 



116 THE PROTESTANT 

lost. The people are moved and excited to 
devotion by the fervor of an extemporary 
prayer, the evident breathings of the spirit of 
their pastor. A prescribed form breaks this 
chain of sympathy. 

4. A form tends to promote indolence in 
ministers, so far as it prevents the exertion of 
their faculties. 

5. The constant repetition of the same thing 
tends to deaden the affections of the worship- 
ers, and promote formality. 

6. Litm'gies cannot be adapted to all the 
circumstances of different societies, and the 
several events which may occur, and which 
ought to be noticed in public prayer. 

Q. 130. What is exceptionable in the gen- 
eral form and construction of the Liturgy ? 

A. 1. The method is irregular and confused, 
The several prayers, collects, ckc, are with- 
out any order or connection. 

2. The parts into which it is divided are too 
many and too minute. Some of the distinct 
prayers, and especially the collects, seem to 
have no distinguishing object, but are little 
more than introduction and conclusion. See 
Col. for 2d Sunday after Epiph., 2d before 
Lent, 3d, 4th, and 5th in Lent. 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 117 

3. It is full of tautology and vain repeti- 
tions. 

4. It is in some views very defective. The 
confession is too general ; as, indeed, are the 
petitions and thanksgivings. 

5. The service is too long ; in consequence 
of which too little time is given for preach- 
ing the Gospel. 

Q. 132. What is exceptionable, as to senti- 
ment, in particular parts of the Liturgy ? 

A. 1. In the office of Baptism. 

Such expressions are used concerning the 
efficacy of that rite as naturally lead persons 
to conceive of it as a saving ordinance. 

God is thanked for having regenerated the 
child hy his Holy Spirit. The water is called 
the laver of regeneration, by which the child, 
being born in original sin and in the wrath of 
God, is received into the number of the child- 
ren of God, and heirs of everlasting life. Ac- 
cordingly in the Catechism the child is taught 
to say of its baptism, — " wherein I was made 
a member of Christ, a child of God, and an 
inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven." A sen- 
timent as dangerous as it is unreasonable and 
unscriptural. The catechism recognizes a dis- 
tinction between the " outward sign" and the 



118 THE PROTESTANT 

" inward grace ;" yet the doctrine commonly 
maintained is, that the " inward grace" is con- 
ferred on the child by the Holy Spirit at the 
time of applying the "outward sign." 

2. In the Communion Service. 

Some expressions strongly favor the notion 
of Christ's real presence in the bread and wine : 
a superstitious regard to which is encouraged 
by the use of the term consecration^ and by 
bowing the knee, to receive the bread and 
wine. 

The words used are : " Grant us therefore 
so to eat the flesh of thy dear son Jesus Christ, 
and so to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies 
may be made clean by his body," &c. When 
the minister gives the bread, he says, " The 
body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy 
body and soul ;" and when giving the cup, 
" The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, preserve 
thy body and soul," &c. 

3. In the Burial Service. 

This one service is read at all funerals 
without distinction, whatever the age, circum- 
stances or character of the deceased may be ; 
even though he is known to have been a most 
abandoned sinner and hardened infidel, and to 
have died without any signs of repentance ; 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 119 

the only exceptions being unhaptized adults, 
self-murderers, or excommunicated persons, 
which last case very rarely happens. In this 
service the minister is required to style the de- 
ceased — " Our deceased brother" — an ex- 
pression which must often wound the con- 
science of the minister, and be attended with 
very dangerous consequences to the people, 
who may naturally encourage themselves to 
go on in sin, on the presumption of obtaining 
happiness at last, since they so often hear 
persons of the most infamous characters, and 
others with no pretensions to piety, called, 
when dead. Christian brethren. 

4. The use of the iVpocryphal Books. 
The reading of Lessons from the Apocryphal 
books seems to give the Apocrypha equal 
authority with the Bible, and encourages the 
Papists in their errors. 

5. In the Litany, or General Supplication, 
the manner in which the Trinity is addressed, 
at the beginning, has been thought by Trinita- 
rians (Calvin in particular) very exceptionable, 
as it is without Scripture precedent. 

Q. 132. How is it to be accounted for that 
the Liturgy contains so many exceptionable 
thinors ? 



120 THE PROTESTANT 

A. The plain reason is, the greater part of 
it was taken from the old Popish Liturgy ; 
from which the first Reformers prudently made 
as little variation as possible. Some improve- 
ments have been made by the church in this 
country. 

\Mien the Devonsliire men were stirred up to rebell- 
ion on account of the alteration of their Mass Book, 
King Edward VI tells them in a letter, to quiet them, 
As for the service in the English tongue, it perchance 
seems to you a new service, but yet, indeed it is no other 
but the old : the self same words in Enghsh. Accord- 
ingly some of the Popes offered to confirm the English 
Liturgy. See Art. Liturgy, in the New Englander, Vol. 
I. See Delaune-'s Plea, 47-52. 

CEREMONIES. 

Q. 133. What are the objectionable ceremo- 
nies used in the Protestant Episcopal Church ? 

A. 1. Bowing at the name of Jesus. 2. Sign- 
ing with a cross in baptism. 3. Particular ges- 
tures in worship, especially kneeling at the 
Lord's Supper. 

Q. 134. Why should not the people "bow 
at the name of Jesus" ? Are we not required 
to do so ? 

A. The passage of scripture (Philip, ii. 10) 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 121 

on which this practice is founded, cannot rea- 
sonably be taken in a literal sense ; and it is 
absurd to suppose that such a ceremony should 
be enjoined in honor of the Son. and not of the 
Father, or at the mention of the name Je- 
sus, and not of any other of the numerous 
names by which the Son of God is called. 
The practice savors of superstition. 

Q. 135. What is the pretence for the Priest's 
crossing the forehead in baptism ? 

A. It is said to be done as a token that the 
person baptized " shall not be ashamed to con- 
fess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully 
to fight under his banner." 

The cross in baptism was first introduced in 
the fourth century, by a sect called the Basil- 
idians. 

Q. 136. What is objected to this ceremony ? 

A. 1 . Christ never appointed it. 

2. If the mark of a cross must be used as a 
badge of a disciple of Christ, it ought to be 
either visible and permanent, or often repeated, 
as it is by the Papists. 

3. To use this sign in baptism, is to make 
two sacraments of one, according to the defini- 
tion of a sacrament, as an " outward visible 
sign of an inward and spiritual grace." 

11 



122 THE PROTESTANT 

4. If there were no particular objections to 
the practice, it would be condemned by the 
general principle, that no additions should 
needlessly be made to the simple ritual of the 
primitive church. 

Q. 137. Why should we object to so trifling 
a ceremony as kneeling at the sacrament of the 
supper, since we do not scruple to kneel in 
prayer ? 

A. The practice of kneeling took its rise 
from the Popish adoration of the elements as 
the very body and blood of Christ ; and it can- 
not be repeated in the presence of those who 
regard them in this light, without encouraging 
their superstition and idolatry. 

Q. 138. Are there not some other questiona- 
ble ceremonies observed in this church 1 

A. There are several customs, which par- 
take of the nature of ceremonies, and are liable 
to much the same objections : for example, the 
wearing of particular habits, observing certain 
days as holy, the distinction of places and the 
use of sponsors in baptism. 

All these are mere human and arbitrary appointments, 
unknown in the primitive clmrch, ill according with the 
simplicity of the Gospel, and calculated to satisfy the re- 
ligix)us feeling of the people v/ith forms, rather than with 
divine truth. 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 123 

The office of sponsors is particular!}^ exceptionable, 
because the sponsors are made to personate the child at 
its baptism, and solemnly engage for its religious educa- 
tion, though often they expect never to have any thing to 
do with its education ; and they even promise and vow 
these things in its name: 1st. That it doth renounce 
the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of 
the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and 
the sinful desires of the flesh. 2d. That it doth beheve 
all the articles of the Christian faith. 3d. That it will 
keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk 
in the same all the days of its life : wliich engagement 
is such as none can fulfill. 



DISCIPLINE. 

Q. 1 39. Is there any thing objectionable in the 
discipline of this church ? 

A. Yes ; it is not in the hands of the brother- 
hood of each particular church, according to the 
primitive pattern ; and all persons who have 
been confirmed by the bishop, and who are not ex- 
communicated nor grossly immoral, are allowed 
to come to the communion, contrary to the order 
of the primitive church, which was composed 
solely of those who gave credible evidence of 
having been " born again." It is true that the 
minister charges those that come to the sacra- 



124 THE PROTESTANT, &C. 

ment, to be truly penitent for their sins, &c., 
but there is no personal examination to see 
whether they are so, and nothing required at 
their confirmation to satisfy a sober and intel- 
ligent Christian, that they have ever passed 
from death unto life. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH. 

Q. 140. What was the origm of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church in the United States ? 

A. It was founded by John Wesley, who, in 
1784, by the imposition of his own hands, or- 
dained Thomas Coke for the Episcopal office in 
America, and commissioned and directed him 
to set apart Francis Asbury to the same of- 
fice. By the hands of these Bishops and their 
successors, the present clergy of this church 
have chiefly received ordination. See Disci- 
pline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Ch. 
I, sec. 1. 

Q. 141. What is the general frame of this 
church ? 

A. 1. All the particular associations of be- 
lievers are embraced in one general organiza- 
tion. 

11* 



126 THE METHODIST 

The entire field is divided riito several annual Confer- 
ences — thirty-three at the present time m the United 
States, and one each in Texas and Liberia. Each an- 
nual Conference is divided mto several Districts — and 
each District into several Circuits and Stations. A Sta- 
tion is one society or congregation. A Circuit includes 
several societies and congi'egations. 

2. The societies and congregations are gov- 
erned and instructed for the most part by an 
itinerant ministry. 

It is the duty of the Bishops or sfeneral Superintend- 
ents to travel over the whole field, and exercise their 
Episcopal functions in eveiy part of it. They are gener- 
al, rather than diocesan Bishops — for they have equal 
authority in all the Conferences, and divide the field 
among them m such a way that each goes over the 
whole ground. A Presiding Elder has charge of each 
District ; but one person cannot fill the office in the same 
District more than four years in succession. And no 
pastor can remain more than two years on a Circuit or 
Station. See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 4, Ques. 3. 

3. There are only two orders in the ministry, 
Deacons and Elders or Presbyters. See John 
Emor}''s Defense, sec. 5, p. 20. 

The Elders, Presiding Elders, and Bishops, are consid- 
ered of the same order, differing only in respect to office. 
The Deacons are the second order, who have not yet risen 
to the rank of Elders. There are many itinerant preachers 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 127 

who have not been ordained, but are candidates for the 
order of Deacons. 

4. The business of organizing churches, 
teaching the people, and administering disci- 
pline, belongs wholly to the ordained ministry. 
See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 3. 

But this does not imply that the clergy shall not call 
in the aid of others. Hence they have various officers in 
the church to assist in pastoral labor and in the adminis- 
tration of discipline, viz : Local Preachers, Exhorters, 
Class Leaders, Stewards, ajid Committees. 

5. The chief government of the church is 
vested inj various official bodies or judicato- 
ries. 

The highest is the General Conference, which meets 
once every four years, and is composed of delegates 
from the Annual Conferences. The next in order are the 
Annual Conferences, which are composed of the travel- 
ing preachers within their several bounds. The next axe 
Quarterly Conferences. These are composed of the 
Preachers, itinerant and local, of a circuit or station, with 
the Exhorters, Class Leaders and Stewards. See Dis- 
cipline, Ch. I, sec. 4, Ques. 4. Ch. I, sec. 3, Ques. 2. 
Ch. I, sec. 2L 

6. The Presiding Elders, and the pastors 
of the several circuits and stations, receive 



128 THE METHODIST 

their appointments directly from the Bishop, 
at each Annual Conference — for the appoint- 
ments are made or renewed every year. 

Churches or societies may petition for a particular 
minister, but can do no more. So ministers, if they see 
fit, can sohcit an appointment to a particular field of la- 
bor, but still they are subject to the appointing power. 
See Disciphne, Ch. I, sec. 4. 

Q. 143. How are members admitted to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church ? 

A. The official minister or circuit preach- 
er receives into full membership any baptized 
person whom he considers worthy, provided 
he has been on trial and has met in class for 
six months, and is recommended as a suitable 
person for church fellowship by his class lead- 
er. See Discipline, Ch. II, sec. 2. 

Q. 143. How are unworthy members ex- 
cluded from this church ? 

A. '* The Society," or several individuals, 
are summoned by the minister to try the case, 
and if the accused is found guilty, the minister 
suspends or expels him from the church, as 
the circumstances of the case may require. 
If either the minister or the subject of disci- 
pline is dissatisfied with the result of the trial, 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 129 

he may appeal to the next Quarterly Confer- 
ence. See Discipline, Ch. II, sec. 7. 

Q. 144. What are the official powers of a 
.pastor or preacher of a Circuit ? 

A. He Licenses the exhorters ; appoints 
and removes at pleasure the class leaders ; 
and has the general oversight and direction of 
all the spiritual and secular affairs of the Cir- 
cuit. See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 10. 

Q. 145. What are the official powers of a 
Presiding Elder of a District ? 

A. He has the control and direction of all 
the traveling and local preachers within his 
District. See Discipline, Ch. I, sec. 5. 

Q. 146. What are the powers of the Bish- 
ops ? 

A. They have the sole powder of appointing 
the Presiding Elders, of stationing the preach- 
ers, and of moving them w^henever they think 
best, subject to certain restrictions. They 
have also the power of ordination, and the 
general control of the temporal and spiritual 
concerns of the chmxh. See Discipline, Ch. 
I, sec. 4, sec. 5, Ques. 1. Yet this power of 
stationing the preachers may be taken from 
them at any time by the General Conferenc e — ^ 
on which body, indeed, they are wholly de- 



130 THE METHODIST 

pendent. See " A Defense of our Fathers," 
by John Emory, p. 64. 

Q. 147. What have you to object to this 
system of church polity ? 

A. M}^ principal objections are — 

1. It divests all the particular churches of 
church power, and vests the whole power in 
the hands of the clergy, by whom, history in- 
forms us, it is extremely liable to be abused. 

2. It wholly overlooks and abrogates the 
rules of discipline given by Christ in the 18th 
chap, of Matt. 

3. It takes from the brethren the right of 
choosing their own religious teachers, on 
which right, more than on any other, the 
church depends for defense against false and 
incompetent teachers. 

4. It deprives the churches of resident pas- 
tors and teachers, contrary to primitive prac- 
tice, and to the highest advancement of the 
members in Christian knowledge and experi- 
ence. 

Q. 148. Has not the Methodist itinerant 
system been productive of great good ? 

A. Undoubtedly that feature of the Meth- 
odist economy has conduced much to its rapid 
growth and advancement. But it seems to be 



EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 131 

adapted to the early operations of a new sect, 
and to the wants of a sparse population, rather 
than to the highest edification and improvement 
of the people. This requires a permanent minis- 
try. And it should also be recollected, in institu- 
ting a comparison between the Congregational 
and Methodist systems, that the employment of 
traveling preachers, although reduced to a sys- 
tem and carried to a great extent by the Meth- 
odists, IS not unknown to Congregationalism. 
Evangelists and missionaries are not confined 
to the care of a single church ; and it would 
be in perfect keeping with Congregational or- 
der to supply new and thinly inhabited regions 
with an itinerant ministrv. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Q. 149. What was the origin of the Pres- 
byterian church in this country ? 

A. Among the first colonists of this coun- 
try were persons from England and Scotland, 
who were partial to Presbyterianism ; and in 
the course of the 18th century Presbyterian 
churches were organized and Presbyteries con- 
stituted, with a Synod embracing the whole 
body of Presbyterian ministers, called the Synod 
of Philadelphia. Until 1727, this Synod had 
no written confession or form of government. 
In that year it adopted the ^Yestminister Con- 
fession of Faith and Catechisms, and also re- 
commended to the churches under its care, 
" the Directory for Worship, Discipline, and 
Government, commonly annexed to the West- 
minister Confession." In 1741, the Synod 
was rent asunder, and two rival Synods were 
12 



134 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

formed, viz : New York and Philadelphia. In 
1758, these Synods were united ; and in 1788, 
they adopted " the Constitution of the Presby- 
terian church in the United States of Ameri- 
ca." Under this constitution, with a General 
Assembly as the highest Judicatory of the 
church, they remained united until 1837, with 
the exception of the schism of 1810, when 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church was 
constituted. In the year 1837, the General 
Assembly passed an act exscinding from the 
church the Synods of Geneva, Utica, Genesee, 
and the Western Reserve. These exscinded 
bodies and other portions of the church which 
sympathized with them, regarding the exscind- 
ing act of the assembly as unconstitutional, re- 
tain their former title of " the Presbyterian 
Church m the United States of America." In 
their General Assembly of 1840, they enacted 
that that Body shall hereafter meet triennially, 
instead of annually, and that the judicial deci- 
sions of the Synods shall in all cases be final. 
In the other body of the same name, the Gen- 
eral Assembly is still the highest ecclesiasti- 
cal court. See Ques. 150, Ans. 5. 

Q. 150. What is the general frame and 
Constitution of the Presbyterian church ? 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 135 

A. 1. Like the Protestant Episcopal and 
Methodist Episcopal churches, the Presbyte- 
rian is in theory a national church. " The 
several different congregations of believers, 
taken collectively, constitute one church of 
Christ, called emphatically, the Presbyterian 
church. See " Form of Government of Pres- 
byterian churches in United States," p. 397, 
18mo. 1821. 

2. A Church Session, as it is called, con- 
sisting of the pastor and several ruling Elders, 
is " charged v^^ith maintaining the spiritual 
government of the Congregation." Plan of 
Gov., Ch. X, § 6. 

3. From the decisions of the Session, ap- 
peals may be made to a higher court, called 
" the Presbytery," v^hich is composed " of all 
the ministers, and one ruling Elder from each 
congregation," vi^ithin a given district. 

4. An appeal may be made from the deci- 
sions of the Presbytery to a third judicatory, 
called " the Synod," composed of the minis- 
ters and Elders of several Presbyteries. 

5. A General Assembly, composed of a del- 
egation of ministers and Elders from the sev- 
eral Presbyteries of the whole church, is con- 
stituted the supreme tribunal and a court of ap- 



136 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

peal for the final issuing of all cases, which 
may be carried up to it from the inferior judica- 
tories. This assembly has authority over the 
whole church ; and is in fact the Presbyterian 
church itself. See Ques. 149. 

Q. 151. In what important respects does 
this church differ from the Protestant Episco- 
pal and the Methodist Episcopal churches ? 

A. 1. In maintaining the parity or equality 
of all who labor in word and doctrine. Both 
the Methodist Episcopal and the Protestant 
Episcopal churches require of the inferior 
clergy an oath of obedience to their superiors. 

2. In recognizing more fully the right of the 
several churches to appoint their own officers. 
In the Methodist Episcopal church the people 
have no voice in electing any of their officers, 
and in the Protestant Episcopal church, the 
Bishop, who is in a sense the pastor of all the 
churches of his diocese, may not be the choice 
of a single congTegation. And in all cases the 
people are obliged to petition their bishop to 
grant them the pastor of their choice. 

Q. 152. In what important respect does the 
Presbyterian church agree with those just 
mentioned, contrary to the primitive and Con- 
gregational systems ? 



THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 137 

A. In depriving the brotherhood of each 
particular church of the government thereof, 
and vesting all ecclesiastical power in the 
hands of church officers. 
12* 



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